Digital BW, The Print

> Seems the first Claria cart compatibles are already available:
> 
> http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=21615256

Yes, Bob L. noticed them Tuesday.

MIS also reports that both carts and chips are starting to flow, and from
some of their better suppliers.  They're concerned a bit about a pattern
from the Chinese manufacturers in the past of sending excellent samples at
first and then second rate production runs.  So, they are going to try and
look carefully at the quality of the products.

>... The big question is did they step on any Epson patents to do this?

I would assume that the Epson actions have at least caused the manufacturers
to be a bit more careful.  On the other hand, maybe they just don't care and
don't believe Epson will ever be able to seal off the country from these
imports.

I wonder if the comment in the dpreview article about apparent high ink
usage is due to the carts having voids in them (as shown in the Russian
dissections) that makes the actual ink capacity far less than apparent
("slack packing" is an old consumer protection issue -- see
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fpla/fplact.html ) or due to actual higher
ink flows.  It would appear that whatever the cause, this will raise the
demand for third party, competitive ink sources.  Epson may be a bit
overconfident due to its legal actions and unique ink formula.  I'm hoping
for a backlash, myself.  If anyone sees a cost per page comparison, that
might be useful.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com