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Lexmark To Exit Inkjet Printer Market
Barence writes "Lexmark has announced it will stop making inkjet printers and cut 1,700 jobs as part of a cost-cutting restructuring move. Lexmark will stop all inkjet development worldwide by 2013, and close its Philippines-based inkjet supplies manufacturing plant by 2015. This will provide annual savings of $85 million, rising to $95 million by 2015. The total restructuring cost before tax is expected to be $160 million. The company is also looking into the possible sale of its inkjet-related technology." I know there are some purposes for which inkjets are good (modern home photo printing can be insanely good, and we've featured a lot of cool projects which use inkjets to print sensors, solar cells, antennae, and more), but I get just a little queasy whenever I see an inkjet printer purchased by an innocent friend or family member who doesn't realize quite how much it will end up costing them in the long run.
Executive: "restructuring cost before tax"
English: "way to create a paper loss to avoid tax".
Except that if you only print occasionally the ink heads clog or dry up, requiring a ink-wasting cleaning cycle or replacement... A cheap laser, even a cheap color laser, is so much better a choice for anything but photo printing. Decent color lasers can be had for $200 on sale sometimes. Really decent ones for $300.
...to follow suit, and wean consumers off the "cheap inkjet printer" crack pipe. I have a full-color (4 cartridge) laser printer that I virtually never need to change the toner on, and when I do it's invariably the black cartridge. My significant other, meanwhile, goes through inkjet cartridges like I go through socks. And I *love* socks.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Laser isn't as expensive as it used to be.
For around $100 you can have a BW HP laser.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828115639
The quality and reliablity make it woth the extra money, even if you never recoup the $60 price difference between that and this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828102471
Color laser is closer to $ 170. But most casual printers don't really need color, they just need a readable printout.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
The quality and reliablity make it woth the extra money
That's my fear, lexmark will find a way to value engineer lasers to eliminate laser-style quality and reliability.
Imagine if McDonalds broke into the sushi market, dumped into the market to put all independent sushi shops out of business, them dropped quality to the level of rotten canned cat food to generate a modest financial gain, then got out of the sushi market because no one wants to buy rotten canned cat food anymore.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Refilling your own cartridges is super easy if you pick the right printer.
Brother printers particularly are good, the cartridges (at least all the ones I've seen) are just ink receptacles, they have no electronics, just put more ink in job done.
Ink can be purchased on ebay etc in 100ml bottles or more, for a fraction of the cost of buying cartridges.
Even better, it's pretty easy to find good inkjets for a buck or two second hand, I've bought lots of them, most with empty cartridges, often complete with power and USB. Refill the carts, run a few cleaning cycles, and they work really well.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
In Mid-2004 their stock was around $90. Now it hovers around $22.
It warms my heart to see the scum of the printer industry slowly die. Whenever I was asked about which printer to get, my answer was almost always, "Anything but Lexmark."
Came to say this. For those that don't know the DMCA reference, Lexmark filed lawsuits under the DMCA to prevent ink refill manufacturers from putting out products for their printers. They argued since the code in their printer/carts was copyrighted, the act of circumventing it by putting more ink in was illegal.
Yeah, they made a lot of friends with that one.
Good riddance.
I had a sucky sig.