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| KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 All-In-One. |
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Page 1 of 6 Author: Scott Piercy Editor: Nigel Woodford Manufacturer: Kodak Model: Kodak Easyshare 5500 Kodak's launch of their first serious foray into consumer printing has met with a certain level of success. Their Easyshare line of AIO printers has garnered a great deal of press with their attempt to change the rules of the consumer printing market. Lexmark and HP dominate the existing consumer print market with their varying approaches to the retail line. Lexmark generally follows the "razor blades" sales model, offering inexpensive, disposable printers and not so cheap cartridges. HP, the dominant company in the market, plays this game to an extent on the low end, but seems to follow a different tactic across its model lines. Step into any retail store that sells HP ink cartridges and you will see what we mean. HP offers a huge array of deliberately different sizes and types of cartridges. This is a marketing gimmick designed to cultivate name recognition by dominating retail linear footage of shelf space with a company brand. Kodak's approach is uniquely its own. Offer rugged, well constructed printers, and inexpensive standardized ink cartridges. Though there are only three models in Kodak's current product lineup, it is Kodak's intention to stick to these standardized ink cartridges when new models are introduced in the future. The reason Kodak can get away with this is due to their patented discrete print-head technology, which decouples the printhead from its ink cartridges. As a result, Kodak's ink cartridges are far less expensive to manufacture than competing manufacturers cartridges. Also, because Kodak is a major player in the ink and chemical business, they can manufacture their own inks inexpensively and still make decent margin on their consumables while offering consumers a less expensive printing experience.Today we delve into Kodak's top of the line model, the Easyshare 5500 AIO. Compared to the 5300, which we reviewed here , it offers a few more features. Most notably a document feed, fax capabilities, and duplex (double sided) printing. Let's see if these features are worth the additional cost. First, the ubiquitous specs page... |
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