Kodak is well-known for its photo printers, but the company has decided to take the next step and enter the all-in-one printer market with its new Easyshare 5100, 5300, and 5500 inkjets, with an eye toward letting consumers print documents and accomplish other common tasks while offering high levels of print quality and—perhaps most importantly for a company looking to enter the inkjet market—low cost of ownership.
“For far too long, people have felt restrained from printing due to the high cost of ink,” said Antonio M. Perez, kodak’s chairman and CEO. “Our new system gives consumers the freedom to print documents and photos frequently, easily and affordably with exceptional quality that lasts a lifetime under typical home display conditions. Our extensive history in printing, combined with our legendary dedication to the consumer, puts us in a unique position to revolutionize inkjet printing.”
The kodak EasyShare printer all share Kodak’s premium pigment-based ink, priced at just $9.99 for a cartridge of black and $14.99 for a five-color ink cartridge. Kodak claims that these cartridges enable consumers to print the same number of pages at half the cost of other consumer inkjet printers; further, with the Kodak Value Pack, users will be able to print 4 × 6-inch photos at as little as 10 cents per print. The printer also utilize Kodak’s Kodacolor technology, which combined the pigment based inks with micro-porous papers, color and imaging technology, and Kodak’s MEMS (Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-Systems) print head to deliver high-quality output.
The company has announced three pinter models:
- The Easyshare 5100 features printing, scanning, and copying features and pumps out up to 32 pages per minute in black and 22 ppm in color. It features Pictbridge direct-from-camera printing, and should hit retailers in March for $149.
- The Easyshare 5300 offers the features of the 5100 with a three-inch LCD display and built-in photo viewing and cropping capabilities; users can also load images directly via (unspecified) memory card slots. Expect it for $199 in March.
- The Easyshare 5500 is aimed at home office users, and adds fax functionality, an automatic document feeder, and a duplexer attachment. It should arrive at retailers in May for an estimated price of $299.99.
“For too long, consumers have complained that ink costs too much; that quality, durability and longevity is not good enough; and that printers are too hard to use,” Perez said. “That stops today—because of Kodak and our revolutionary approach to inkjet.” Kodak is so keen to sell customers on the lower cost of its ink technology (because, as we all know, traditional inkjet printing costs can be ridiculous) that it’s created a new Web site offering an “entertaining” look at the issues surround the historically high cost of ink.
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