Ink Wars

Yesterday I wrote about Kodak's new All-in-One printer, which promises to slash the cost of home printing in half. Today's news? Not to be undone, HP announced their new strategy for saving you money on printing. Its new pricing for inkjet replacement cartridges is based on shopping in bulk: The more you print the more you save.

HP will be color coding its ink cartridges to meet the needs of three different types of users. Standard cartridges (the blue package) will be priced at $14.99. They're designed for "the bulk of us" who don't do a ton of printing. The green package is the "Value" or "XL" package. The cartridges will be bigger and hold more ink (they'll cost around $30). Green is targeted at those of us who are intense printer users. Finally, in the red package, HP will offer their "specialty" cartridge designed for those of us who really need professional quality prints.

The strategy is sort of like asking whether you're a Costco shopper or a grocery store shopper. If you buy in bulk with the jumbo sized cartridges, you'll pay more initially but the cost of printing will be lower. Right now, if you buy HP ink cartridges you're spending about $30 for a regular sized cartridge, so either way, HP is cutting the cost of ink significantly.

Of course Kodak is pooh-poohing the HP strategy. An email I received from Kodak stated the company felt consumers would be happier with its approach, which is to charge $9.99 for a black cartridge and $14.99 for a color cartridge. Kodak's approach is cheaper overall, but no jumbo sizes.

Who wins? We do. Finally inkjet replacement cartridges cost less than a tank of gas!