Three Reasons That Printer Ink Cartridges Are The Most Expensive Parts Of Printers

2011-03-16

For many consumers, the price of supplying their printers with printer ink can exceed the price of filling their cars with gasoline. In fact, it doesn't take long for the price of ink cartridges to exceed the price of the printer itself. While there are many factors that contribute to the high price of ink - from the marketing goals of printer manufacturers to the price of inventing new ink technologies - these are the three that have the greatest impact on high printer ink costs.

Expensive Ink Makes Cheaper Printers Available

It may seem that the price of printers goes down every day. This is because printer manufacturers are in an endless price war with their competitors. To entice new buyers to purchase their products, printer manufacturers are willing to sell high quality printers at very low prices.

The caveat is that consumers pay more every time they purchase an ink cartridge. Manufacturers don't expect to make a profit from the actual printers, so they raise the price of the ink to recover their costs.

The High Cost of Research Drives Up Ink Costs

Printer manufacturers are constantly searching for the latest in ink technology. In fact, the quality of printing has come a long way since the days when dot matrix printing was standard. It has taken the diligent efforts of research scientists to bring forth printers capable of producing photo-quality prints.

As a result, manufacturers are in debt long before their latest ink cartridge design hits the shelf. Companies have already spent millions of dollars on researching, patenting and manufacturing the final product. This high start-up cost is often passed on to the consumer through high ink prices.

Wasteful Print Jobs Increase Refill Costs

Many consumers may find that they are stopping by the store every other week to pick up a new ink cartridge for their printer. These expensive trips could become less frequent if they would make a few simple changes to their printing habits.

In order to produce high quality documents, inkjet printers use large amounts of ink by default. To drastically reduce the amount of ink that is used in print jobs, it is important to set the printer to conserve the amount of ink used on a project. Often, consumers overlook these precautions and end up using more ink than they need to. As a result, they are constantly paying for expensive printer ink cartridges.

After just a few refills, the printer ink costs easily rise above the price of the printer itself. Consumer habits, the high price of research and compensation for the availability of inexpensive printers are all factors behind the costs that come with purchasing printer ink refills.