Why do printer companies allow their cartridges to be refilled?

[coolermaster]

If printer companies like HP make up to 40 per cent of their profit, in their consumer division, selling ink. Why did these companies not invent a mechanism whereby no non-original cartridges or refills could NOT be used?
This has always intrigued me.

 

[bruceb]

A lot of printers are out there, that use what is known as a "chipped cartridge" to prevent refilling it. But there are ways around that and many newer model printers, use individual ink tanks for the colors, instead of tri-color cartridges. This way, you only buy the colors you need, as you need them. I used to refill, but on my HP it is too much bother for the amount I print.

 

[lamedude]

Lexmark fought it and lost.

 

[lagokc]

Lexmark fought it and lost.

Well, looks like I'm not buying a Lexmark/Dell printer ever.

 

[Vinwiesel]

Remember when companies used innovation and quality to win customers instead of lawsuits?

Pepperidge Farm remembers. And add Lexmark to my #2 list as well.

 

[bruceb]

In case you did not know, Lexmark was / is made by IBM .. And as to HP, while their printers usually work trouble free, you can almost never find a break on the cost of inks. No matter where you go, all the stores are within about $0.25 of each other. And when places like Staples run a sale on ink, HP is just about always not included in the sale. So it is "price fixing" and not a thing we can do about it.

 

[BuffaloChuck]

Actually, Lexmark started some 20-odd years ago as a spinoff of IBM which pondered getting rid of its consumer ink-jet division. Many of that division's executives and engineers left on an early-retirement pay-out, funded Lexmark in Lexington, KY and that's how it started. The association with IBM Corp, after that, was based on a few contracts to mutual customers (IBM main-mid-miniframe systems using ink-jets and consumer lasers), and the ex-IBM'ers getting their monthly pension checks.

After a few years, few in IBM hallways had any relationships or memories with the ex-IBM'ers, and Lexmark was expanding so rapidly that their employee base far outstripped the few ex-IBM'ers.

They did keep one engineering design - the need for service personnel, like Epson, Canon and all the other printers that require print-head cleaning instead of an HP-esque design which sells a more expensive cartridge that includes a brand-new printhead each time.

 

[coolermaster]

like Epson, Canon and all the other printers that require print-head cleaning instead of an HP-esque design which sells a more expensive cartridge that includes a brand-new printhead each time.

I never knew that HP cartridges sometimes had a new print head with them?