Compatible inkjet cartridges are a recent phenomena.
With the launch of the inkjet printer around 1990 the power of high quality printing was now available to home and business users.
By removing the professional printer and replacing them with desktop inkjet printers the demand for inkjet cartridges was ready to soar.
Inkjet printer manufacturers were excited by this development and saw possibilities of high profits from the large volume use of cartridges required to feed these hungry inkjet printers.
At one stage, personal estimates of what one inkjet manufacturer was charging for ink based on the volume of ink in the cartridge, and cost per cartridge, was around $12,000 per gallon!
As exciting as this was to the manufacturers of inkjet printers, it also aroused the interest of compatible inkjet cartridge manufacturers and a whole new industry was created.
As there was such generous profits in the inkjet cartridges there was room for compatible inkjet cartridge manufacturers to invest in equipment and develop a range of generic cartridges to compete with the original manufacturers cartridges.
At first the easy cartridges were copied. The easy inkjet cartridges were those that were basically a plastic container which held the ink and allowed the controlled delivery of the ink to the inkjet printer printhead. The cartridges did not have any electronics as part of the cartridge.
These included printers with permanent piezo printheads and some printers which used thermal technology to fire ink on to the paper.
Later in the development of compatible cartridges, there were companies that invested heavily in the development of compatible cartridges with electronics. This was to compete against cartridges that included a disposable printhead which was a large segment of the business / high volume users.
Compatible cartridges offered savings of between 30-80% depending on the cartridge type so became attractive to users of inkjet printers. These savings were significant and hence the sales of compatible cartridges grew.
End users who had a positive experience with these generics sang there praises. Others who were not so lucky and had a poor experience, found little support from inkjet manufacturers. Manufacturers of genuine cartridges were losing profits from the use of generic cartridges so there response was understandable.
The manufacturers of the generic cartridges were often based overseas with a non-existent customer support department. This created the dilemma. Potential savings with no support.
The approach I use for buying compatible cartridges is:
buy a printer that uses "simple" cartridges without associated electronics
buy a printer that has a separate printhead to the cartridges (compatibles cartridges that don't have a printhead as part of the cartridge are relatively cheaper)
buy compatible cartridges from a retailer who has a simple return policy
once you find a brand of compatible cartridges that works satisfactorily, stick with it
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