Kodak Ends Inkjet Printer Sales, Continues to Sell Ink

Kodak recently announced that it was discontinuing the sales of its inkjet printers, which left many customers worried that the company may discontinue the sale of the ink for these printers as well. Many people bought inkjet printers from Kodak for one simple reason, that being the fact that the ink for these printers was pretty cheap in comparison to others. The good news is that even though the company won't sell any more inkjet printers, it will still continue to sell the ink to customers who have these printers.

Krista Gleason, spokeswoman for Kodak, recently stressed, "Kodak will continue to sell ink to its customers, honor all product warranties, and provide technical support and service. Customer service remains a priority." However, that raises the question of how long this will go on. According to Gleason, "The expected lifetime of the printers," which is three to four years based on industry average.

Kodak added that it anticipates supporting inkjet sales beyond that, as long as consumer demand remains strong. The same thing was said last month when Lexmark announced that it was exiting the inkjet printer business. Even though both companies get some credit for not leaving customers high and dry, this isn't all about customer service.

The real profit for printer and copier companies comes from ink and toner sales. This announcement from Kodak clearly stated that it would continue to sell the ink in an effort to crawl out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. "Kodak has continued to manage its Consumer Inkjet business for profitability, and starting in 2013, it will focus that business on the sale of ink to its installed base," the company said.

Kodak's printers have been considered slower than most of the other ones on the market. Even though picture quality on Kodak devices was very good, other features and capabilities seemed underwhelming for office use. To make things worse, Kodak put these devices up against a ton of new and better devices from companies like Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. Aside from printing photos, Kodak's printers weren't fast enough to be of any real use in an office setting.

IDC's Keith Kmetz stated, "Kodak's market share never achieved the levels the company hoped for, and Kodak's financial struggles made the company's consumer inkjet effort very difficult." These problems sound a lot like the ones faced by Lexmark, where both companies wanted to sell ink and toner for printers and copiers that were mediocre and best.

Source: PCWorld - Kodak printers are gone, but the ink sells on