Digital BW, The Print

The real problem - I've seen it a hundred times - is innovation 
typically does not flourish in a large vertically integrated company 
like Epson. I don't know anything about Epson but I suspect I can tell 
you their story. It produces nice hardware and have software to drive it 
but they have the mentality of "no revolutions." Hence you have a driver 
that works, it sprays ink on a paper, and it has been patched, modified, 
evolved - what ever name you want to call it - but it's still not a good 
driver for getting the most out of the hardware. The risk of throwing it 
away and starting over is too great. And the inertia of "staying in 
house" is too great.

This type of thing has become a very big issue in the US defense 
industry with the consoladation and the DOD has recognized the lack of 
innovation coming out of industry. That's why things like the SBIR 
(Small Business Inovative Research)  program has been establish and 
funded to the hilt.

Sounds to me like Epson needs to start looking to farm some of its 
software development.

While the price tag of Imageprint is high, you are paying for their 
innovation - it doesn't come cheap. Innovation is not efficient and it 
can't be done for the same cost as modifiying a piece of existing code. 
Imageprint need the economies of scale to bring the price down. The best 
thing that could happen to all involved is Epson decide to guarantee a 
set number of sells of Imageprint and give out coupons in the 2200 (this 
could be done retroactively) for a discount on Imageprint. The could 
also sign a long term agreement to use the Image print driver on their 
current and future printer. I think the Gray Balancer fiasco has been a 
black eye to Epson, hopefully they will do something. But, alas, I'm not 
counting on it. The other thing a large company has trouble being is 
creative.

Truman

thedigitaldog wrote:

> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Robert G. Morrison" <
> rmorrison@p...> wrote:
>
> > One thing that many of us need to get over...in my opinion...is 
> feeling that
> > software should be free...if you have ever written code before you 
> know it
> > is hard, time consuming work...and if you are running a business 
> that is not
> > supported by printer and ink sales you need to make money someway!
>
> I totally agree. With this software (which ain't cheap), it makes the 
> Epson the
> printer it should be. On another list, people are complaining that the 
> software
> for the 2200 is $495 while Gray Balancer is/was free and they don't
> understand that the two are not even in the same league. One's a poorly
> designed hack that works on top of a problematic driver.
>
> The 2200 is a $600 printer or a $1000 printer with great software. 
> Look at the
> total package. With IP running it, it's still worth $1000 IMHO.