HP Argues The Results of Kodak's Ink Test

TechTalk blogger, Dean Takahashi, presents in his article an argument between HP and Kodak. The cause of the argument was the results of Quality Logic’s test proving that Kodak inks save customers 50% on everything they print. I wrote about this test not so long ago.

He lists a number of HP statements challenging the conditions and results of the test, as well as Kodak’s responses to those statements. I’ll quote one of them:

HP goes:

"QualityLogic’s test did not include all available HP supplies. For example, HP’s Photosmart C4180 offers a larger black supply (HP 95) than what was included in the test, which would have resulted in lower black cost-per-page for HP. What’s more, HP offers many different value pack options that further reduce HP’s cost-of-printing."

For that Kodak replies:

"Kodak chose to test the cartridges that ship with each printer because these are the cartridges that consumers are most likely to purchase. Therefore, the testing was based on individually purchased cartridges. It is also the most practical way to provide an apples-to-apples comparison.

Like HP, Kodak offers a discounted combo cartridge pack, delivering an even lower cost-of-ink and lower cost-per-page to consumers. While this would have provided even better cost-per-page results for Kodak, it would not have supported apples-to-apples comparative testing."

Seems like Kodak does have a weapon to conquer the ink cartridges market, however HP won’t to give up its market share easily.

Kodak Inks Are Proved to Be Cost-Effective

In February, 2007 Kodak released a new type of inks. The inks were claimed to make printout more durable (up to 100 years) and cost-effective (up to 50%). Recently, Kodak unveiled unveiled ink yield test results and cost-per-page analysis.

The tests were conducted by a side company, QualityLogic Inc. They compared Kodak 5300 All-in-One printer inks yield against that of 12 printers of other leading brands. Testing included printing of both black-and-white and color documents and photos.

Based on results of inks yield test, Kodak made its own analysis of ink cost per page, comparing cost of ink for all modes tested. The results of this analysis proved that Kodak multifunction printers could print more pages per $5 of ink every time.

Kodak Rocks Photo Print: Cheaper Inks and 100 Years of Prints Endurance

Kodak made a big announcement of its first for last 5 years full-format printers (the company did release compact photo-printers). This announcement could have been unnoticed, if not the declared efficiency of the printers.

The thing is, the inks used in these printers have quite outstanding features.

First, Kodak guarantees the endurance of printouts to be 100 years. Most photos printed on modern inkjet printers have average endurance of 15 years.

Second, a 4x6-inch print will cost only 10 cent (obviously, we’re talking about the cots of inks only), which is two times cheaper than that of HP, Epson or Canon. For monochrome print the cost will be 3 cent per print.

A black ink cartridge will come to $10, while a 5-color cartridge is priced at $15.