HP:SUPER-SIZES CONSUMER INK CARTRIDGES

[Anonymous]

HP Super-Sizes Consumer Printer Cartridges
HP Overhauls Printer Cartridge System ,New System Adds Jumbo Sizes
Hewlett-Packard
said on Tuesday it will be gradually changing the way the company
delivers its inkjet cartridges by instituting three new color-coded
categories and a lowered, two-tiered pricing scheme for its inkjet
printer cartridges. Gone will be the days of the standard printing
system, where consumers bought a standard cartridge size using the
conventional HP two-digit numbering system. HP now says that numerical
identification will be revamped, and consumers will have a choice of
the size of their cartridges.As part of an ongoing rollout that will
continue through the remaining year, HP will introduce standard, value,
and specialty cartridges—each labeled with a blue, green, and red
color-coded system, respectively—in various retail stores and online,
all in the hopes of offering its customers a simplified shopping
experience, more choice, and greater value, the company said.According
to Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of HP’s Supplies, Imaging,
and Printing Group, the changes are nothing less than a total revamping
of the way HP offers it supplies, as well as an admonition that not
everyone has the same printing needs.It may also mean that the company
is starting to feel the sting from various third-party inkjet cartridge
companies that continue to sell HP-compatible ink cartridges for
substantially less money.”We’re trying to do three things here,”
Jotwani said. “We want to give consumers more choice, more value, and
we’re trying to simplify the shopping experience, particularly in a
world that is a hybrid online and offline world.””Before, the way we
were doing it, we offered one black and one color cartridge to
consumers,” Jotwani added, “with no choice within the printing system.
We were trying to meet both subsets with one cartridge.”With its new,
streamlined offerings, Jotwani says that HP is now recognizing that
there are in fact two large clusters of cartridge buyers: “one set of
people who want access to printing, but who don’t print that much—once
or twice a week,” Jotwani said.For these more price-conscious
consumers, HP is offering its standard cartridges (blue packaging),
which the company says have a lower purchase price of $14.99.Then
there’s another cluster that prints a lot: 7,000 plus pages a month,”
Jotwani said. “They also want reliable, high-quality printing, but
they’re focused on cost per page, not per cartridge.”For that subset,
HP will offer higher-yield, value cartridges (green packaging) that
will be priced at around $30 a box, the company says. This line will
include new high-yield “XL” cartridges that HP says will provide
customers with approximately 30 to 45 percent savings on a
cost-per-page basis, print up to three times more pages, and require
fewer cartridge replacements compared to standard cartridges.A third
cartridge type, or specialty, will come packaged in red boxes and be
aimed primarily at users who want to print the highest-quality photos
possible. Those cartridges will be priced at about $25, and will print
approximately 150 photos each.Alongside these changes, HP is also
initiating a revamped two-digit cartridge identification system, which
will be used throughout the HP inkjet cartridge line, as well as
updated point-of-sale materials such as new ink selection guides.While
the company currently uses a two-digit cartridge-naming scheme for most
of its inkjet cartridges, the new system will expand that method,
absorbing some of the popular cartridge numbers in the blue, green,
red/normal XL scheme, HP said. 

[Author]

April 24, 2007 at 12:10 PM