Super Pointers for Saving Money on Printer Ink
31 January 2010When you purchase a new printer it commonly contains some free ink. When purchasing a new printer a lot of people don t take into consideration the price of the ink cartridges. The printing market is following the business model pioneered by King Gillette. The razor maker has been selling low cost handles and premium cost blades for over one hundred years, and now has a leading placement in the market place. Increasingly customers are moving to compatible inks.
The market research company IDC has produced a report showing considerable changes to the market for ink. Sales of own brand ink have been greatly hit by the recession. The compatibles marketplace has bucked this trend growing by 5%. Thirty-seven percent of the market is now controlled by the compatible ink manufacturers. The main growth areas have been in Eastern Europe where compatible inks now dominate the market. With further price increases in original inks, the shift to compatible inks is expected to continue.
It often looks that printer makers do everything possible to end the compatible inks market. It is very common for cartridges to use small electronic data chips in them. Chips need to be seen and in good working order for printers to operate. These electronic chips are tough for the manufacturers of copy cartridges to copy. These extra barriers do make it harder for firms to produce compatibles. There are however a number of companies that do succeed. If you are purchasing a copy cartridge for a printer that has a chip reader you need to make sure that the copy cartridge you purchase has this technology incorporated.
With rising ink prices, more and more manufacturers of compatibles have entered the market. Some compatible inks can have very poor performance, whereas with others it is hard to seen any difference between them and the original ink. Look for indications of quality before purchasing. If the compatible comes from a well known store they are unlikely to risk their reputation on bad quality products. Selecting a high quality compatible ink can frequently save significant amounts of cash and still have great quality prints. Just as there are sizeable price differences between compatible and original ink cartridges there are also large price differences between compatible brands.
There are scores of places you need to look to find good deals. Sites that do price comparisons can be really good for this. This is an excellent way to save money on ink.
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