Toner News Mobile › Forums › Latest Industry News › *NEWS*HP OVERHAULS PRINTER CTG SYSTEM
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AnonymousInactiveHP Overhauls Printer Cartridge System
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.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.Throughout this year, HP will introduce new consumer printers
that will be rolled out alongside the revamped cartridge system, which
will introduce standard, value, and specialty cartridges labeled with
blue, green, and red color coding, respectively. The program will be
introduced in various retail stores as well as online, all in the hopes
of offering its customers a simplified shopping experience, more
choice, and greater value, the company said.Analysts confirmed that the
new cartridges will actually contain a greater volume of ink. However,
the new “XL” cartridges aren’t new; the company’s “78” cartridge has
been released in a small and large size since 1999, according to Andy
Lippman, an inks analyst for printer research firm Lyra Research.HP’s current printer cartridges will still be supported, HP said.
According
to Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of HP’s Supplies, Imaging,
and Printing Group, the changes are nothing less than a total revamp of
the way HP offers its supplies, as well as a recognition 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.Did HP’s ink cartridge system need a rework? We’d like to know.
“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.The new lineup
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. Continued…The value 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.The rule of thumb in the printer
industry is that 20 percent of users consume about 70 percent of the
market’s ink, Lippman said. “The point is that the high-volume users
have a need,” he said. “With these value – XL – cartridges, HP is
recognizing that this is what the market will look like going
forward.””For those that don’t need to print as many pages, it’s like
buying a soda for a dollar in the grocery store,” Lippman added. “That
may be all the soda you need. But if you want to buy in bulk, there’s
always that option, too.”HP first began offering a larger 58.5-ml ink
cartridge in 1999, Lyra’s Lippman said, complementing the
industry-standard 27-ml cartridge.HP “88” cartridge, introduced in fall
2005, comes in both a 20.5-ml small size and a 58.5-ml “value”
cartridge, Lippman said. According to Lyra’s tests, the small 20.5 ml
“88” cartridge yields about 900 monochrome pages, at an average price
of $19.99 per cartridge. The HP 88XL black “value” cartridge yields
about 2,500 monochrome pages for $34.99, Lippman said. However, the
volume of ink the HP’s rebranded XL cartridge will hold has not been
formally disclosed, he added.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.Normally, HP printers ship with either a black, tricolor, or
photo-optimized cartridge, Lyra’s Lippman said. The new packaging will
simply a cosmetic change to attract the eye, he said.In 2007, the
printer industry could be shaped by a startup, Memjet. Is 360 pages per
minute possible? The company says yes.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 into the blue, green,
and red scheme, HP said.HP also said that it would be adding other
retail promotional materials to educate consumers and educate them on
the new inks.A spokeswoman from rival Lexmark, which reported higher
profits Tuesday morning, declined to comment. Representatives from
Epson couldn’t be reached at press time.Kodak, however, saw the
announcement as an endorsement of its own strategy. “It appears that HP
wants customers to choose low cartridge price OR low cost per print,”
the company said in a statement.”Volume discounts aren’t new,” Kodak
added. “Kodak believes consumers will be more delighted with its
approach because they will get both a low cost-per-page AND an
inexpensive cartridge – $9.99 for premium black ink and $14.99 for
premium, five-ink color cartridges. This will generate real Kodak
lab-quality prints for as low as 15 cents apiece. Unlike HP customers,
Kodak printer owners won’t have to search for special cartridges or pay
in advance to get a great value. -
AuthorMay 7, 2007 at 11:01 AM
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