60% of average home users better off not buying a Kodak printer? December 16, 2011 08:17 by John Sollars

After a torrid year in which some analysts expected Kodak to file for bankruptcy it now seems to be turning a corner.  The company  is now concentrating its efforts on printer sales ahead of a quarter which it expects to be strong.  According to Antonio Perez, CEO of the firm, all four of the company's digital growth businesses are expected to show growth in the fourth quarter.However, none of those businesses are camera businesses. Kodak has been struggling to keep up in the digital photography world, with thousands of job losses and recently the sale of its image-sensor division, which was the pioneering arm of the company which invented the first digital camera sensor. Three of the four businesses are concerned with the commercial printing industry, which Perez said will be the "nucleus of the new Kodak."Of the four "digital growth" businesses, just one is consumer focused, and that is the desktop inkjet printer arm of the company. Kodak recently launched a new set of Hero printers, and invests heavily in advertising to boast of its cheap ink costs.

However, in a recent inteview with Robert Ohlweiler, Kodak's Director of Consumer Inkjet for Europe, Africa and Middle East the Kodak model is more expensive for 60% of users.  Ohlweiler explains that most printer manufacturers use a business model that means they make much more money from ink sales than printer sales. In fact, he says that for every £1 spent on a printer, approximately £3 is spent on ink. Kodak takes a different approach by charging a bit more for its printers so that it can keep its ink costs down.

According to Kodak research, the low printer cost, high ink price model suits the majority (around 60%) of people who make very few prints. However, 'photo-active families', home-office users and those who make a lot of prints get better value from the Kodak approach.

Kodak's calculations indicate that those who print more than 4 pages a day (on average) would be better off switching to a Kodak printer.