Bryan Lee
Expat Street Photographer
Kodak has just announced they will cut the cost of home printing by 50% and are offering a new line up of high qaulity ink jet printers, this is fantastic news!
kaiyen
local man of mystery
Proof is in the pudding. Good news that HP is finally waking up, sure, but I'll wait and see if all those claims, which _everyone_ makes all the time (and HP is notorious for) will actually come out to something.
The Z-line of wide format printers look great, that's for sure. Good example of how to do that right. I wish the auto-profiling was just a tad better, though.
allan
The Z-line of wide format printers look great, that's for sure. Good example of how to do that right. I wish the auto-profiling was just a tad better, though.
allan
RayPA
Ignore It (It'll go away)
Bryan Lee said:
Bryan, you beat me to this! I just got in from lunch and reading the WSJ article. I was going to "post up"!
I think it's great that Kodak is making a stab at this. Having worked for the big yellow father for fifteen years, this is one of the first smart and gutsy things they've done in a long time. I'm sick to death of paying dearly for ink cartridges (unless they're for my b&w printing on my Epson 2200). More power to them! I'll be looking at the printers when they come out in March. BTW, according to the article Kodak will use a pigment-based rather than an ink-based "ink"
clintock
Galleryless Gearhead
I've already got a kodak inkjet photo printer- I think they made three in all- about six years ago now..
The Personal Picture Maker, by Lexmark. I've got the PPM 200.
Kodak dropped that thing quick, and they were smart to do that-
It was a normal lexmark printer, with two kodak branded carts, six color, with all the anger-inspiring qualities that prevent anyone from buying lexmark today.
The carts bled ink to ajacent colors so magenta would be purple, cyan got into the yellow once.. Oh an whoa to you if you didn't print something for a week, the carts would dry or clog.
No problem, just replace the carts- oops, they cost 50 dollars each!!
It was my first photo printer, so I try to keep it alive for old time's sake..
The canon S series printers have used the cheap ink model for years- S800, S9000 etc. Generic replacements ink for the canon are quite cheap and I think work even better than the canon stuff.
I may get one of the new kodak ones just for the color management and freshly supported drivers.
The Personal Picture Maker, by Lexmark. I've got the PPM 200.
Kodak dropped that thing quick, and they were smart to do that-
It was a normal lexmark printer, with two kodak branded carts, six color, with all the anger-inspiring qualities that prevent anyone from buying lexmark today.
The carts bled ink to ajacent colors so magenta would be purple, cyan got into the yellow once.. Oh an whoa to you if you didn't print something for a week, the carts would dry or clog.
No problem, just replace the carts- oops, they cost 50 dollars each!!
It was my first photo printer, so I try to keep it alive for old time's sake..
The canon S series printers have used the cheap ink model for years- S800, S9000 etc. Generic replacements ink for the canon are quite cheap and I think work even better than the canon stuff.
I may get one of the new kodak ones just for the color management and freshly supported drivers.
R
rich815
Guest
If you're counting on Kodak somehow taking the advanced amateur/semi-pro photographer market seriously I would not count on it after viewing Kodak's unbelieveably stupid printer website: www.inkisit.com
RayPA
Ignore It (It'll go away)
rich815 said:
Good Lord!! That is UNBELIEVEABLY stooopid! It doesn't resonate here at all. Is Kodak going to bungle this as well?
sooner
Well-known
I just watched part of the Kodak thing, with the volume down, mercifully. I can't imagine an adult in the advertising world coming up with this concept, unless I were marketing something to four year olds, and even then I'd be embarrassed. Really makes you wonder. I hear some of the creative ad people do drugs to facilitate the creative juices, maybe one of them OD'd here. As for the printers, well, I'll be waiting for some objective reviews, but it does sound encouraging.
40oz
...
rich815 said:
it occurs to me that the inkisit.com site is not targeted to the demographic that develops their own film. It also has struck me that the prices listed for the new printers and ink indicate that professional shops are not the likely target for the new products. And by reading the actual press release, I learned that the target for the new printers and ink is the casual consumer. So I'm kind of at a loss as to why anyone would have gotten the idea that the new Kodak printing products were aimed at professionals or even serious amateurs. Kodak already has digital printing products aimed at the professional, as anyone with a modicum of interest in the company would know. Takes like three seconds to find on their site.
How this simple press release can be turned into an opportunity to bash Kodak is beyond me.
Trius
Waiting on Maitani
40oz: Exactly. The question is whether enough Joe Six-Packs (Joe Double-Double in Canada) buy into the operating cost ROI proposition. You can bet HP, Canon, etc., will make sure their retailers have ammunition to combat Kodak at the point-of-sale. Those guys even have retail sales specialists who work at CompUSA, etc., or make the rounds and are on the floor in front of customers.
Kodak's competitors can also cut the price of ink, either at time of sale, through rebates and promotions, etc.
So the tale of the tape will be the follow-on marketing and sales support. I am absolutely certain Kodak has done very good market research and has a thoroughly vetted business case. Execution (yet again) will be the key, especially because they are not creating a new market or technology.
Kodak's competitors can also cut the price of ink, either at time of sale, through rebates and promotions, etc.
So the tale of the tape will be the follow-on marketing and sales support. I am absolutely certain Kodak has done very good market research and has a thoroughly vetted business case. Execution (yet again) will be the key, especially because they are not creating a new market or technology.
R
rich815
Guest
40oz said:
Pro, consumer, moron, whatever market. How you can look at that site whoever it's targeted towards and not bash Kodak is beyond me.
40oz
...
rich815 said:
because you posted the site. It wasn't in the press release, it wasn't posted by a Kodak rep, it was not something that I found anywhere but in your post. I have seen many ad campaigns that didn't do anything for me, but they weren't intended to attract my interest, either. You are welcome to bash anyone you want, but understand that it comes across as juvenile when something is taken out of context to be held up for ridicule.
One finds what they are looking for. If one is looking for reasons to bash a company, they'll find them. I'd rather spend my time looking for things to be thankful for than things to ridicule or attack.
Bryan Lee
Expat Street Photographer
Without a doubt Kodak is testing the waters by diving in head first. I understand this dive into the market with cheep printers and cheep ink to be a type of Custers last stand, I hope it works out better for them than it did for him. The current presidente of Kodak was the big cheese at HP and has taken their stratagy for earning basicly taking a film giant and getting set up as a fourth string printing bench warmer. I dont like the way Kodak seems to be going but I have no more brand loyalty to them. Like I said whoever is giving out free t-shirts and selling black and white film I will advertise for and buy products from and its that simple.
The launch of their new printers got my attention but unless they can keep it by releasing somthing important at PMA 2007 they will loose it very quickly. I still believe its fantastic they have entered this market or reentered or whatever you want say about it. If they did bet the farm on these new printers their website INKISIT will go down in history as putting Dorf in charge of Kodaks marketing department. Dorf on Ink? at least Tim Conway is funny!
The launch of their new printers got my attention but unless they can keep it by releasing somthing important at PMA 2007 they will loose it very quickly. I still believe its fantastic they have entered this market or reentered or whatever you want say about it. If they did bet the farm on these new printers their website INKISIT will go down in history as putting Dorf in charge of Kodaks marketing department. Dorf on Ink? at least Tim Conway is funny!
dmr
Registered Abuser
That link you posted is BAD! So bad it's almost good in a campy sort of way. However they do make a good point. Printers have in the last several years been marketed on the "give them the razor, sell them the blades" model. The printers, most of them anyway, are dirt cheap, but the replacement cartridges are ex$pen$ive!
Kodak's marketing info asserts that you can save substantially on cost per print using their model, which apparently is a slightly greater cost for the printer, and a lesser cost for the ink replacements.
I just recently got a new HP 9180 printer. I'm very impressed with it and am still climbing the learning curve as to what it can do.
However, I am dreading the day that I have to start replacing the ink cartridges. Eight (8 - count 'em 8) of them, and B&H lists them at US$31.95 each! You can actually buy the mid-range Kodak printer for less than you can totally re-ink this HP one.
I'm not sorry I went this way, and I'm sure there's no way I will trade this for a Kodak, but I'm hoping this move will cause the competitors to follow and reduce replacement ink prices to more sane levels.
Kodak's marketing info asserts that you can save substantially on cost per print using their model, which apparently is a slightly greater cost for the printer, and a lesser cost for the ink replacements.
I just recently got a new HP 9180 printer. I'm very impressed with it and am still climbing the learning curve as to what it can do.
However, I am dreading the day that I have to start replacing the ink cartridges. Eight (8 - count 'em 8) of them, and B&H lists them at US$31.95 each! You can actually buy the mid-range Kodak printer for less than you can totally re-ink this HP one.
I'm not sorry I went this way, and I'm sure there's no way I will trade this for a Kodak, but I'm hoping this move will cause the competitors to follow and reduce replacement ink prices to more sane levels.