Back in December I wrote about HP and Kodak’s war of words (HP Kodak At War – Low Printer Prices!) over Kodak’s advertising claims and the low cost of their printer cartridges. Here’s an update to the saga.

When Kodak started advertising for their line of printer cartridges they claimed consumers could save, on average, $110 per year on the cost of ink. HP took exception to this and commissioned some research to find out if the claim was true. The study found that a person would have to print at least four pages per day to realize the kind of savings Kodak touted.

In December the Federal Trade Commission forced Kodak to alter their advertising campaign to include the four printed pages per day. Ah, but are they now correct?

Nope.

The average home printer user only prints about two pages per day (Source: Lyra Research). I focus on the home user because that is who Kodak’s advertising was targeting. Kodak’s cost savings claim is based on a number that is twice as high as the actual number of pages printed. To realize the savings Kodak claims you would have to be printing almost 1500 pages per year. If the average home printer user prints two pages per day they will print 730 pages in a year.

To date, Kodak has had not response on this.

Here’s another interesting tidbit. Kodak’s inkjet cartridges are getting more expensive.

What? The company that built its printer marketing on cheap ink cartridges is raising their prices! It’s true.

The standard model in the printer cartridge industry has been based on inexpensive printers and higher priced printer cartridges. Kodak deviated from the model but looks to be coming back around with their 10B (black) and 10C (color) cartridges. The black cartridge is priced the same ($10.99) as the last generation black cartridge, but it contains less ink. The 10C cartridge is $3 more expensive than its last generation counterpart. In both cases . . . More expensive ink.

Further evidence of Kodak’s shift. Their marketing for these cartridges. They want you to think you are getting a better deal than before. One print ad claims:

“Now prints 10% more pages”

According to Lyra Research this is not the case. They’ve shown that the 10C color cartridge has a 9 percent higher cost per page, and the 10B black cartridge has a 25 percent higher cost per page.

So, yes, Kodak still offers some of the lowest priced printer cartridges on the market. But is their advertising really relaying the correct message? Are we really saving as much as they say we are?

Let me know what you think. Thanks!