A new line of printers from HP offers a fast photo printing option, claiming it can deliver a 4×6 photo in 14 seconds.
While printing higher quality photos on special photo paper will take longer, a basic home picture can be churned out in fourteen seconds, at the default and fastest settings.
HP has found a different way to manufacture the printheads in their inkjet printers. The company’s engineers have changed the way a printhead gets put together. Instead of putting components together post-production, a printhead gets fabricated as one unit in what HP calls a photolithographic process.
The process brings the various pieces of the printhead into precise alignment, which places more drops of ink accurately. And, HP can put more nozzles onto a printhead. Combined, these factors both lead to faster printing.
The base model 8250 photo printer will sell for $199; a Photosmart 3000 All-In-One will price from $299 to $399 and will be out this fall.
Before users run to HP’s shopping web site or the local tech retailer, they will want to note that these two new printers using the advanced printheads each require six HP Vivera ink cartridges.
Those Vivera cartridges have been billed as using “premium” ink. They price at $20 to $35 per cartridge, ranging from basic black to photo color. It is not clear from HP’s press release how these are different from “non-premium” inks.
Printer makers have employed the same strategy for a while, in selling the printers at a nominal cost and making money on the sale of print cartridges. It’s a time-tested strategy that has worked for decades with other products, and the reason why HP’s Imaging and Printing division has been its most profitable.
The addition of premium ink cartridges to the product line, a tactic used by Lexmark and Epson as well, is one that tries to tie buyers to the brand. But the prices charged by the printer makers for ink cartridges have been less than competitive. That happens when a business has no competition for a replacement consumable part.
Third-party companies have come along to try and take some of that replacement cartridge business. One company, Lexmark, tried suing a firm over the use of its self-described proprietary technology in third-party cartridges, and has lost several legal challenges to date.
Even with expense concerns about replacement cartridges, HP makes very good printers and certainly merits consideration by the purchasing public whenever they want buy a new printer.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
