Print cartridge prices haven't changed since my original review, and recent PC World tests bear this out as well. Clearly, the Kodak ESP 7 is less expensive to operate in ink costs. The only question is: Is this printer a good value for the money? Here are some considerations: In a market where people are printing less, Kodak's strategy is to siphon off consumers who spend the most on ink: the most profitable customers.īut none of that intrigue matters to consumers. The business model is built on selling highly profitable ink, not the printers. Although Kodak still has a very small market share, competitors have taken it seriously, and for good reason: Canon filed a complaint about Kodak's advertising claims with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (unsuccessful) last year HP recently filed a similar complaint. It has implied that its competitors are ripping off the consumer - a tactic that has irritated leading vendors including HP and Canon. Kodak has taken a populist marketing approach, trying to play off what it sees as consumer frustrations at the high cost of replacement ink. Lower consumables cost means substantially lower cost per print than competing printers - a fact borne out by my testing of the ESP 7's predecessor, as well as in a recent PC World test of the ESP 7. It offered lower cost replacement ink cartridges. The right paper choice helped get a more realistic image in both cases.Ģ. My previous Kodak prints looked a bit washed out, while prints from an HP ink-jet were too vibrant (oversaturated).
Competitors say dye-based inks produce more vibrant colors. It uses a pigment-based ink that Kodak says creates photo prints that last a lifetime, without fading, while providing as good or better image quality than the more common dye-based inks. To differentiate its ink-jet line from those of its competitors and to get a toehold in this competitive market, Kodak did two things differently with the ESP 7.ġ. Kodak entered the consumer multifunction printer market in 2007, fairly late and against entrenched competition. The ESP 7 is a multifunction consumer-grade printer with built-in printing, copying and scanning functions for a list price of $199.99 (street prices start at about $160). This week I finally set up the Kodak ESP 7 multifunction ink-jet printer for some extended testing.
0 kommentar(er)
