Unfortunately, in the consumer market printer manufacturers have been forced into an retail model that requires them to realise a profit on the cheap and affordable original printer sale through follow-up sales of a minimum number of ink cartridges

Buying a service


Anyway, it's an undisputed fact that the liquid ink you buy in an ink cartridge, doesn't cost anywhere near as much to make, physically, as it costs to buy. But you aren't just buying ink and you aren't even just paying for ink plus a cartridge, plus packaging, distribution and the vendors' margins. For want of a better word, you are buying a service that is an extension of the printer. While many think ink cartridge prices are a rip-off, in the case of many a printer, unless you use a certain minimum number of cartridges during the life of that printer, the printer manufacturer will, in effect, lose money on that printer.



Look at the size, mechanical sophistication and precision of a typical consumer-specification ink-jet printer and compare it with, say, a digital camera that probably costs twice or three times as much in the shop. Which product actually costs more to make? If printer manufacturers decided to charge us what it costs to make the printer, plus the commercial retail margin, the cost could be shockingly high. Many of us might not be able to justify buying one. But, instead, the ink might be incredibly cheap to buy.



In fact, printers aimed at professional users, who are likely to consume large quantities of ink over the lifetime of the printer, tend to have to pay more for the printer in the first place and relatively less for ink when calculated as a cost for the area printed.

Cheap printers, expensive inks

Unfortunately, in the consumer market printer manufacturers have been forced into an retail model that requires them to realise a profit on the cheap and affordable original printer sale through follow-up sales of a minimum number of ink cartridges. This penalises users who print more than the manufacturer budgeted for. In recognition of this, some manufacturers do offer high capacity cartridges sold at a lower cost per ml, but the demand for cheaper alternative supplies of ink remains high.



The pros and cons of third party inks and cartridges is the subject for a different debate. But basically, unless you are using a specialised third party ink product with a proven track record, to go for a cheap third party ink is very risky. Colour accuracy, fade resistance and print quality are usually inferior and even the reliability of your printer can become an issue with some of these inks. The irony is that it's the vendors of third party inks that are, potentially, making most money per ml of ink sold, not the printer manufacturers.