Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 9/17/06 4:25:19 PM, cbabing3@... writes:


> And will it be absitively, posolutely IMPOSSIBLE to put anybody else's
> ink in?
> 
Each new generation of chipped carts and new inks takes time, at the very 
least, for third parties to reverse engineer and replicate. But, if the carts are 
big enough, the inks are desirable enough, the product can print gallery 
quality B&W as well as color with the OEM inkset, and the cost to purchase the 
machine is significantly lower than previous generations, I don't see using OEM 
inks as much of a penalty; I suspect that Epson is hoping users will see it 
that way as well. With more competitive products from Canon and HP entering this 
market, they may feel it necessary to offer more affordable ink prices as 
well.

So while many on this list have, as their first reaction to any new printer: 
"how soon can we rip this baby apart and print through it with third party 
inks, and third party RIPs"... thats getting to be less of a factor, as the new 
OEM products function more desirably without all that outside ink and driver 
development.

Oh, and I should point out that the most money I've ever spent on a single 
set of OEM carts for a printer (barring commercial size systems like the Epson 
440ml carts, and the Canon iPF90000 carts) was not for an Epson, but for a set 
of Canon iPF5000 carts: 12 130ml carts for nearly $900. Thats half the price 
of the printer; just like spending fifty bucks on a pair of replacement carts 
for a ninety nine dollar printer! <G>

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Division
DataColor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com



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