With all of the drama about Xerox trying to take over HP, I got to thinking why? Both firms are dinosaurs with a history of innovation but why are they in a $35 billion tug-o-war now? – Printer Ink. Go to any big-box office supply store – the cost of the ink should shock you. It can be cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink for the current printer.
Bloomberg reports that current ink cartilages are stuffed with foam sponges that hold a fraction of an ounce of cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes that make up the printed image. The printers then spray the contents of the cartridge at 36,000 drops per second on to your paper. Typically the ink needs to be refilled after 165 pages.
The Business Insider calculates that a gallon of printer ink can cost you $12,000. When in cartridge form, ink is more expensive than vintage Champagne and even human blood. When I first wrote about the high cost of printer ink in 2013, ink was estimated to cost 105 times the cost of a latte.
BI explains that inkjet printers were first developed in the 1960s, and early computer inks were made from food dye and water. Because of this, they would fade after a few months, so companies scrambled to develop a permanent photographic quality dye. In 1988, Hewlett-Packard achieved just that, with the HP DeskJet, the first mass-market inkjet printer, which sold for about $1,000.
BI recently interviewed David Connett. He’s the former editor of The Recycler and activist lobbying for change in the printer-ink industry. Mr. Connett says the reason ink is so expensive is simple: greed – and an outdated razor-and-blades model.
Printer manufacturers sell their printers cheaply. They sell the consumables at a very expensive price. And basically, it’s a formula: The cheaper the printer, the more expensive the consumables. BI says that once you’ve bought a printer that uses cartridges you’re trapped in a cycle. You have no choice but to buy their ink cartridges or throw away your printer.
Since a printer is usually a long-term purchase, companies don’t mind selling them at a loss and making the money back through cartridge sales. BI cites the HP Envy 4520 all-in-one printer as an example. It sells for $70 but is estimated to cost $120 to manufacture. The loss HP takes on printers means they need to sell ink cartridges to make a profit, and this model has led to a battleground between printer manufacturers and third-party ink suppliers.
The companies do everything they can to keep you buying official ink cartridges. Manufacturers install microchips into their cartridges and frequently issue firmware updates to prevent the use of third-party ink, which can be more affordable.
Tech firms won’t keep their devices up to date – unless there is a profit in it. Mr. Connett noted that last year, almost 900 firmware upgrades were issued by just nine printer manufacturers, so that’s almost three a day. He speculates there are a couple of reasons for that many updates, “either absolute incompetence, ’cause you’ve got to do it so much, or it is a definite stealth tactic to control the market.”
The materials they use, however, cost very little. Mr. Connett says the manufacturing cost of ink is between $70 and $140 a gallon. The printer companies told BI the high costs of ink are due to the research and development that goes into perfecting printer ink. In addition to begin expensive, a lot of the ink you buy never even gets used for printing.
According to 2018 tests by Consumer Reports, more than half the ink you buy could end up lost in maintenance cycles for cleaning the print heads. And printers that use multiple-color ink cartridges also stop working as soon as one color runs out, even if the other colors are still full.
BI reports that today you’re getting even less for your money. While the cartridges themselves are the same size and price, they often contain far less ink. The ink in many manufacturers’ cartridges has shrunk from 20 mils to around 5 mils over the past few years, without any reduction in price. The original-size 20 mil cartridges are often still on sale but sold as extra-large cartridges for even more money. And some new cartridges can have only 3 milliliters of ink inside
Mr. Connett concluded,
This product .. can be better engineered … ultimately, this is bad for the consumer, because it’s overpriced and expensive, and it’s bad for the environment because it doesn’t need to be made that way.
BI reached out to HP for comment. HP replied with this statement:
Original HP ink and toner cartridges deliver the best possible printing experience for customers. We make significant investments in R&D each year to provide the highest levels of print quality, safety, and environmental sustainability…
Despite a 2017 supreme court ruling, Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc. in favor of third-party ink, printer manufacturers remain relentless in their drive to eliminate cheaper ink alternatives. They have turned to everything from stealth firmware updates disguised as security patches, to questionable takedown notices on eBay to keep their users hooked on high cost ink.
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In the three decades following HP’s introduction of the desktop laser printer, in 1984, the print division brought in over a half-trillion dollars of revenue.
To further protect their half-trillion dollars of revenue, HP has started an ink subscription program, which will deactivate your cartridges remotely if you print more than your allocated pages.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.