If there is a computer peripheral universally hated by users, it is the inkjet printer. More than 30 years have passed since the first units hit the shelves, and their quality has not improved—quite the opposite. As if that were not enough, the price of ink has reached absolutely ridiculous levels, hitting both occasional and professional users alike. Why? Today we are going to explore the reasons.
Is your printer a malicious and contemptible creature with the only confirmed ability to fail when you need it most? Welcome to the club, friend. In fact, you will not find it hard to discover that millions of users suffer the same calamity. On one hand, we must struggle with drivers older than the Parthenon. Then management conflicts arise, with jammed print queues and other mutant errors. Finally, we arrive at the madness of ink.
Want to print in black? You cannot because you ran out of magenta. Looking for alternative cartridges? The manufacturer accuses you of being a traitorous pirate and blocks the printer. And if you decide to do things 'officially'... you have to pay a fortune. No matter which path you take, as an inkjet printer user, you end up punished. What is the problem? Why is printer ink so expensive?
The Real Reasons
Well... ink cartridges are essentially a fraud, inspired by the old razor and blades business model. Take the HP ENVY Photo 4527 All-In-One printer as an example. The price for a new unit ranges between 60 and 70 euros, but its actual manufacturing cost is much higher. How does HP recover the difference? By decapitating its customers with the price of cartridges and other consumables (paper).
The most common excuse is that investments in research and development are very high. The reality tells us that the manufacturing cost of ink is between 10 and 40 euros per liter (depending on the application), when an official HP 302XL black cartridge of 8.5 milliliters (compatible with the aforementioned HP 4527) costs 30 euros.
This tactic includes a virtual declaration of war on anyone who decides to refill cartridges, and of course, on those who decide to use them. In 2018, nearly 900 firmware updates were published by just nine printer manufacturers. That is more than two updates per day. The official descriptions almost always talk about “security improvements”, but what they do is limit the market and block the use of alternative cartridges.
But there is more: the user does not even access the total ink in the cartridge. A study by Consumer Reports published in 2018 indicates that the most popular models spend half of their cartridges on maintenance cycles to keep the print heads in good condition. Bellevue Fine Art did its own tests, and the loss ranges between 14 and 21 percent.
Obviously, users resist. Alternative cartridges (many imported from China) and continuous ink systems continue to gain traction. Those users who prioritize black-and-white work jumped to laser technology and never went back. What is the companies' response? Offering “ink subscriptions”. No kidding.
