Epson "charges fortune for thimble of ink"

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 21 Jun 2007 at 15:50

Kodak has hit back at Epson's claims that its inkjet cartridges are poor value for money.

Epson launched a swingeing attack on its new inkjet rival last week, when it commissioned a study that claimed that Kodak cartridges needed to be replaced after as little as 36% usage. Epson blamed this on one colour in the multi-tone cartridge running out before the rest, resulting in the others being wastefully discarded.

Now, Kodak has accused Epson of painting a false picture. "It appears that Epson commissioned TUV Rhineland to conduct a meaningless study into how much ink is still in a multi-colour cartridge, once one colour runs out and the cartridge has to be discarded," a company statement reads.

"In this study, Epson performed best because of its single-colour ink tanks. Of course, the 'separate colours are more efficient argument' was invented by printer companies who charge a fortune for a thimble full of ink."

"Based on its 100-plus years of photographic colour science technology, Kodak has filled the colour ink cartridge with different amounts of ink so that during normal printing all of the colours are used up at approximately the same time."

To add further fuel to the fire, Epson's Robert Clark claimed that Kodak's printers would reach the end of their life-cycles before the consumer had recouped the cost of the hardware through cheaper ink.

Kodak also refutes these claims. "Mr Clark's first statement, that Kodak's printers would reach the end of their life-cycles before the consumer had recouped the cost of their hardware through cheaper ink, is inaccurate. In fact, consumers more than recoup the value of any hardware price differences; compared to consumer inkjet printers from other manufacturers, after the first purchase of one set of ink cartridges."

PC Pro will deliver its definitive verdict on Kodak's Easyshare all-in-one range in a forthcoming issue.