Kodak Shocks the Printing World

Kodak has finally realized that its future is digital, and has entered the printer market with a
huge bang. The company's three new printers promise to slash the per-page cost in half, compared to traditional ink jets from Epson, HP, and Canon. The ink cartridges are priced so low they're almost giving them away!

The three new printers are the EasyShare 5100, 5300, and 5500. All three are all-in-one printers and all use a six-color, two-cartridge ink system. The black cartridge will have a list price of $9.99 (list) while the five-ink-color cartridge lists at $14.99. Kodak claims that the new printers and cartridges let consumers print the same number of pages at half the cost of other consumer ink jet printers, and that when the Kodak Photo Value Pack is purchased, the cost of printing a 4-by-6-inch photo will be as little as 10 cents.

The Kodak Easyshare 5100 All-in-One Printer ($149.99 list) includes print, scan, and copy capabilities. Kodak claims a print and copy speed of up to 32 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 22 ppm in color, and that it can output a 4-by-6 color print in as little as 28 seconds. It can print photos at up to 8.5-by-11, and documents up to legal size. The 5100 includes a 100-sheet main tray plus 20-sheet 4-by-6-inch photo tray. It can print photos from PictBridge-enabled cameras or a USB drive without involving a PC, and can print wirelessly via a Bluetooth connection.

The Easyshare 5300 All-in-One Printer ($199.99 list) shares the 5100's features plus memory-card slots as well as a 3-inch color LCD display for photo viewing and cropping directly from the printer. The Easyshare 5500 All-in-One Printer ($299.99 list) shares the features of the 5100 and 5300 printers (except the color LCD display is 2.4-inch) and adds fax functionality, a 35-sheet automatic document feeder, and a duplexer attachment for two-sided printing.

The first two models will go on the market next month. But here is the minor catch...the 5100 and 5300 will retail exclusively at Best Buy. The 5500 is expected to begin shipping in May 2007. Online shoppers will be able to purchase the printers in April 2007 at the Kodak Store.

Kodak's secret for low price ink is a technology that puts the print heads in the printer itself and, using a new concept called nano particle pigmentation, just drops the ink through the print heads that are in the printer, which allows them to print a high-quality image that is instantly dry.

And what about paper? The Kodak printers will work on other manufacturer's paper, although most of the other makers use a gel-based photo paper that is quite expensive. Kodak instead uses a new porous paper that is cheaper yet gives equal if not better pictures using the new photo-printing technology. The net result is that Kodak says it will match competitors when it comes to print and image quality but at half the price.

I believe we can expect Kodak's new printing technology to have a dramatic impact on the current photo-printer makers, whose expensive solutions have contributed to their bottom lines for years. Imagine what it could mean to Epson's (or HP's, or Canon's) profits if the company is suddenly forced to cut profit margins on current photo-printer supplies without having a lower-cost solution in place.