Kodak launches assault on inkjet market

[anandasim]

Kodak has come up with pigment based inks for inkjet printers and has announced the release of a brace of printers in the US.

It is claimed that the ink will be more fade resistant and the ink cost could be as much as half that of current inkjet costs.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/0 ... ter-market

The $2.35 billion sale in January of its 111-year-old health-imaging unit will help fund Kodak's bold foray. Analysts estimate Kodak has already sunk more than $400 million into the inkjet project since 2003 when it hired Perez, who had helped develop Hewlett-Packard Co.'s lucrative inkjet-printer division.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ ... 268521.htm

Antonio Perez left the inkjet printer business seven years ago, after he lost out to Carly Fiorina in a bid to run Hewlett-Packard. But it has never been far from his mind. That's why, a few weeks after he joined a struggling Eastman Kodak as president on Apr. 2, 2003, he was peering into a microscope in a lab in Building 82-A on Kodak's sprawling Rochester (N.Y.) campus. Perez was amazed at what he saw: droplets of a new ink produced by Kodak scientists that could yield photo prints with vivid colors that would last a lifetime. "It was the Holy Grail of inkjet printing, and they had it here," recalls Perez.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128730/article.html#

http://www.inkisit.com/

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier. ... cale=en_US

[Stephen]

It does look good....

I am after playing with a 'Phillips Digital Photo Album' tending towards the ideology of storing them digitally and showing them on these digital photo albums.

Storage I think as a backup is an online service such as a Flickr PRO account with the downside of a yearly fee and your own CD/DVD backups is the way to go.

Of course we will always want to print some images and this is where the new Kodak ink jet will become invaluable if it can actually live up to the hype.

Due to the fact that at this point in time physically printed (inkjet/laser) photographs have not proved the test of time such as traditional prints (Pre-Digital Era) and the fact that we do not have sufficient data on the lifetime of said data on CD/DVD's I think multiple backups (DVD/Online/Printed) are essential to keep those 'memories' for our children's grandchildren and their grandchildren.

[anandasim]

Very odd. On one of the other forums, someone pointed out that the Kodak printer shapes are very much like the Lexmarks - a brand I don't have any fascination for. And Lexmark on their US website claims their inks are pigment based, although they don't claim to sell their inks at half the industry average price.

Could be some cross licensing and patent exchange in terms of ink IP and oem manufacture in terms of actual printer hardware.....

[Stephen]

I have had very little experience with Lexmark printers aside from the potential bargain price you can pick them up for $25 at a local store down the road from me after someone has knocked off the ink cartridges it has been tempting and thus far I have not taken them up on the offer.

With that said, at a friends place a couple of weeks ago the Lexmark x5150 All-In-One Printer/Scanner/Fax they have would not re-allign the newly purchased Ink Cartridges no matter how many times you re-inserted, cleaned test page after test page it would not work.

Gave Lexmark customer support a call,
'You are 10th in the queue!', OK this will be enjoyable....
~30minutes later

Lexmark: "Hi how can I help you?"
Me: "I have a x5150 and etc etc (See Above)"
Lexmark: "Do you have the serial number there?"
Me: "Yes, xyz123 etc"
Lexmark: "Thanks, That printer does not appear to be in our database of registered printers, how long ago did your client purchase this printer?"
Me: "(Picking rabbit from hat) About 9 months ago"
Lexmark: "Thats fine would it be OK to enter your clients details into our warranty system?"
Me: "Yes, thats fine, Mr Joe Blogs, 123 Street etc etc"
Lexmark: "Thanks, We will send a replacement printer by courier to your clients place in the next 2-3 working days. "
Me: "That would be great, thank you."
Lexmark: "Your welcome Sir"
Me: "And how do I ship the old printer back to you?"
Lexmark: "Please after you have the new one setup and operational place it in the packaging that the new one came in and call the TNT courier company on 1300xyzxyz and arrange a pickup time."
Me: "Thats great, will TNT invoice me for the transport costs?"
Lexmark: "No, both delivery and return costs by courier will be charged to us and you will incur no-charge and we apologize for the inconvenience."
Me: "Thank you very much Mr. Lexmark"
Lexmark: "Your most welcome, is there anything else I can help you with today?"
Me: "No, I will just add that I am very impressed with your customer service and approach in regards to this situation."
Lexmark: "Your welcome Sir."
Me: "Thank you and goodbye."
{Hang up phone}
With Client go WOOHOO!!! Replacement printer, New Ink Cartridges and courier delivered to and from at no charge.

So for consumer printers I may have a very close look at Lexmark next time around as I hate sending my HP printers back to a HP repair centre and wait and wait....

Customer service I did not expect to say the least... Good job Lexmark.