New York, NY -- In a column which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, writer David Einstein rated all inkjets to basically be the same due to the market becoming “‘commoditized’”. While that may be true to some degree, it may also be an oversimplification.
If all inkjet AIOs were the same, what would the reason be for having so many different models? For starters, let’s take a look at what happened to the market when HP introduced their ePrint back in June of 2010, a revolution was started amongst the OEMs. Each company’s solution to web and wireless connectivity is a little bit different. Some focus mainly on printing photos, while others can do photos, documents, and PDFs. Also with printers these days, each has a set of apps which it can use.
It is undoubtedly a competitive environment in the AIO market. Depending on the model you choose these days, you can find some models which offer printing, scanning, and copying only, others which include a fax, include or not include automatic two-sided printing, an automatic document feeder, and a separate, dedicated photo tray just to name a few. The sizes of the printers’ LCD or CGD screens can vary some as well. With these differences, we are not talking about huge differences in price points all the time; combinations of these features can be found on models from $100-$200 or less.
Even in ink there are differences. Kodak (their financial position aside) has never wavered from their concept of pricing ink at its lowest possible point. While it’s true that lower-priced printers may also use the same two-cartridge ink system, for slightly over $100 in some cases, one can find a printer which uses four individual ink cartridges. Also with ink the formulations differ from each company and are optimized to work with that company’s paper. Between different companies the ink yields differ widely, and there is no common rule that defines a cartridge as standard capacity versus high capacity.
All this is not to say that there are no commonalities. The International Standards Organization (ISO) established a set of guidelines for OEMs recently with regards to print speeds. Now manufacturers provide estimates of their draft print speed as well as figures for their “ISO ppm” speed.
Overall, while similarities do exist, differences can be found between the various
OEM models. Whether they make a difference to the average consumer is up to them, however they do need to know that the $100 Wi-Fi printer from HP is not guaranteed to have the same functionality as $100 Wi-Fi printer from Lexmark, Epson, Canon, or Kodak.
