On Feb. 6, 2007 Kodak returned to the consumer inkjet printer market after several years hiatus and untold missed-opportunities. This week’s announcement of three new AIO inkjet printers, held in NYC on the Saturday Night Live stage at NBC Studios, begs the question: Is Kodak's attempt at succeeding in the inkjet market a “better-late-than-never” scenario, or a “too-little, too-late” scenario?
I’m hoping it’s the first, since Kodak’s strategy may actually force some of the other players to lower their prices on ink if consumers embrace the Kodak units. Why? The marketing thrust behind Kodak’s printers is the claim that they can produce color prints that are 50% cheaper (based on ink costs, not paper) than competitive inkjet products from HP, Epson, and Canon, thereby lowering the potential cost for a 4x6-inch print to around 10 cents.
Currently, the only way to get a 4x6 color print for a dime is to purchase several at a time on an online photo site or at a discount minilab. For home printing, the cost averages about 25-40 cents if you get it right the first time. So I say, “Bravo! Kodak!” for emphasizing the potential cost savings of these printers as a key feature. However, there’s always a catch—or perhaps in this case it’s an Achilles heal. While the competitively-priced photoquality AIO’s from Canon, Epson, and HP feature five to seven individual color ink cartridges, the Kodak AIO’s take a step backward with two cartridges described in the brochures as “Pigment-based black and color inks with black cartridge for $9.99 (MSRP) and five-ink color cartridge for $14.99 (MSRP)”
More accurately, I’d describe the ink set as: one black cartridge used primarily for text, and one five ink cartridge containing C,M,Y,K colored inks and a clear, and a protective sealant overcoat.
So without analyzing the other features, such as the dpi resolution of the flatbed scanner, multiple paper paths, or print speeds, I’m a bit skeptical about the maximum image quality and color gamut that these first-generation Kodak AIO’s can achieve compared to the 3rd and 4th generation printers from competitors who use 5-7 colors. And while Kodak claims that it passes on the cost savings realized by fewer cartridges (all the packing, design, and shipping costs for separate inks add up) and by not embedding a smart chip or LED light in the ink cartridges, I have to wonder about the reason why other manufacturers eventually followed Canon’s separate ink-cartridge lead and Kodak didn’t. Having tested inkjet printers for more than a decade, I have never found one that used all color inks at the same rate, so invariably you wind up tossing out a multi-ink cartridge when one ink is used up but others aren’t. How does that affect the overall cost per print in the long run, and will the Kodak units compete in the image quality arena? I’m going to find out for sure once we get a new Kodak AIO to test against competitive units. Look for our comparison in the June or July issues of Pop.
Click here to read more about the announcement on PopPhoto.com.
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