Kodak began another strategy shift after Antonio M. Pérez became CEO in 2005.
Pérez invested heavily in digital technologies and new services that capitalized on its technology innovation to boost profit margins.[114] He also spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build up a high-margin printer ink business to replace falling film sales, a move which was widely criticized due to the amount of competition present in the printer market, which would make expansion difficult.[128]Kodak’s ink strategy rejected the razor and blades business model used by dominant market leaderHewlett-Packardby selling expensive printers with cheaper ink cartridges.[129] In 2011, these new lines of inkjet printers were said to be on verge of turning a profit, although some analysts were skeptical as printouts had been replaced gradually by electronic copies on computers, tablets, and smartphones.[129] Inkjet printers continued to be viewed as one of the company’s anchors after it entered bankruptcy proceedings.
I had my inkjet from around 2011 to 2015. I think it was a C310 but I can’t find any proof of that. I only know it took the 30B/C cartridges.
They were $25-30 for a bundle on a retailer’s shelf while everything else was closer to $50-70 for a bundle on a retailer’s shelf. There was a 20% yield difference between the two, but that’s no 20% markup! I vaguely recall a 30B double pack that was only $15 total, and that’s what I used to buy once or twice a year. None of that hidden “Cyan mixed in the black to make it blacker” crap that HP did either.
How ironic that Kodak rigged the game to make ink expensive, and then others beat them at it.
Started building their desktop inkjet printer business in 2005 & introduced in early 2007
NBC article from February 2007
From the Kodak Wikipedia
That’s wild!
I had my inkjet from around 2011 to 2015. I think it was a C310 but I can’t find any proof of that. I only know it took the 30B/C cartridges.
They were $25-30 for a bundle on a retailer’s shelf while everything else was closer to $50-70 for a bundle on a retailer’s shelf. There was a 20% yield difference between the two, but that’s no 20% markup! I vaguely recall a 30B double pack that was only $15 total, and that’s what I used to buy once or twice a year. None of that hidden “Cyan mixed in the black to make it blacker” crap that HP did either.
How ironic that Kodak rigged the game to make ink expensive, and then others beat them at it.