A related story that was linked in the Dell article below was about their plan to cut back on mail-in rebates. They want to “simplify” prices and make the buying process better for their customers. This is part of their plan to improve relations with their customers, which have deteriorated over the last few years.

Dell is joining a list of other retailers who are either changing the way they do rebates or else getting rid of them completely. Staples was the first company to alter the process at all when they introduced an online rebate system a few years ago. But the complaints kept coming (many retailers report that rebates are the top source of complaints) and strangely, some retailers have taken serious action. A few weeks ago, OfficeMax announced it was ending almost all mail-in rebates. Best Buy has pledged to eliminate them within the next year or so. And although Dell hasn’t said they are going to completely eliminate them, they are still making a big change.

Rebates are always an easy moneymaker for retailers because they know a certain percentage of people are not going to redeem them, especially for smaller amounts. Although the statistics may vary, it has been estimated that only about 40% of all rebates are redeemed. In addition to the people that don’t redeem, there are those who do and then don’t get them for whatever reason. If there is a problem with the rebate center, the store you bought the product at will just say it’s not their fault because another company messed up. A lot of people just plain forget about the rebates they sent in, since it’s pretty easy to forget about something after two months. If they do release that there was a problem, there probably isn’t a whole lot they can do about it.

So hopefully all this means that in the near future, if you see a $50 printer in a store or online, you are actually going to pay $50 for it.

Dell cutting rebates to streamline pricing [CNN]
Langberg: Mail-in rebates not dying fast enough [Mercury News]

Dell is moving into a new market as they announced they would be selling their color laser printers in Japan at about half of what everyone else charges. Selling them for half as much sounds pretty crazy, but Dell is known for undercutting their competitors on certain products, so maybe they will actually try it. According to the article, Dell will be selling a printer that is $770 compared with the normal price tag of almost $1700.

This is big news for other printer manufacturers because in Japan, the market for color laser printers has been growing by 20% every year. Right now the big boys over there are Ricoh, Canon, Konica Minolta and Epson. It shows how different the market is over there that Ricoh is on top of that list and HP is nowhere to be found.

Dell to launch color printers in Japan [CNN]

Circuit City has the Stylus CX3810 for $30 after rebates. The list price is $90 and there are two $30 rebates. One rebate expires on 7/31 and the other doesn’t expire until 9/30.

The CX3810 is an all-in-one printer that is rated at 18 pages per minute for black and 9 for color. It is basically an entry level machine, so the features on it are pretty standard. It does have a resolution of up to 5760 x 1440 dpi, though, which is higher than a lot of other similar models.

If you already own this printer, you can find Epson Stylus CX3810 cartridges on our site.

In response to this story about toner cartridge prices on Personal Computer World, a site based in the UK, HP issued a response that creatively explained the practice of putting partially-filled cartridges into new printers. According to the story, HP said that the low capacity toner cartridges had just the right amount of ink for people who don’t print that often. If these people who don’t print that often had regular cartridges, the ink could go to waste because it wouldn’t be used often enough.

The original reason the author wrote the article was because of the sticker shock he experienced when it came time to buy his first toner cartridge. He also had a problem with the store that sold a cartridge to him (appropriately, the store was called PC World) because they had different prices for their business customers. Both sides blamed each other, as PC World said HP sets the prices and HP said they weren’t responsible for “street prices” and then offered their explanation for low capacity cartridges.

HP did admit part of the reason why they don’t include regular cartridges with new printers; purchase price. They acquire customers by charging a low price for their machines, and then once they have them they can charge whatever they want for new cartridges. But if the high price they charge for one of their new cartridges was added to the cost of a new printer, well then not as many people would buy new printers. They are banking on the fact that people will not want to buy a whole new printer just because the a new toner cartridge is more than they thought it would be.

Printing money at PC World [Personal Computer World]
Start-up cartridges in printers designed for light users, claims HP [Personal Computer World]

On the same day that they released three new PIXMA inkjet printers, Canon also released three new all-in-one printers. The new models are the PIXMA MP530, PIXMA MP460, PIXMA MP180 and the PIXMA MP160. These new machines feature some sleek designs (see the picture below) and some new technology, including Canon’s Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology for improved copies. No idea what that means.

PIXMA MP530 - seems to be the next step after the popular MP830. This model will retail at $200 and will feature an automatic document feeder along with two separate black ink cartridges. This is the most expensive of the four new all-in-ones, as it is geared more towards business users.

PIXMA MP460 - a $130 photo printer which has a resolution up to 4800 x 1200 color dpi, can produce ink drops as small as two picoliters, and can print a 4 x 6 picture in just under a minute. It also features direct printing from cameras and memory cards. In other words, it’s exactly like every other mid-range photo printer on the market.

PIXMA MP180 - a $100 photo all-in-one. There really isn’t much to say about this model, other than that it is rated at 22 pages per minute for black, which isn’t bad for a Canon all-in-one that’s this cheap.

PIXMA MP160 - the bargain of the bunch at $90, which is about as cheap as Canon gets for a new printer. It looks to be basically the same as the MP180, only Canon doesn’t mention printing full-size pictures in the description for this printer.

Canon also announced the release of a new type of paper, their Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss. This paper “provides a warm luster or pearl finish that closely resembles a traditional retail print.” Neat.

Canon Debuts Four New PIXMA ‘All-in-One’ Printers That Merge Design and Functionality into Sophisticated Products for the Masses [Press Release]

Konica Minolta did a survey in London and asked some people questions about printing. They found out that the people they surveyed didn’t know nothin’.

- Only 20% knew that printing with a laser printer is cheaper than printing with an inkjet
- One in ten didn’t know whether their printer was an inkjet or a laser
- Only 11% could guess roughly how long it would take a laser printer to print an 8 x 10 photo
- About half of them said they didn’t recycle their ink cartridges

Since this survey was done by Konica Minolta, the questions were slightly skewed. For instance, they were surprised that only 9% of people said they would print invoices in color and that only 40% of people would print presentations in color. The moral of the story for them was basically: why print just in black when you can use your Konica Minolta to print everything in color?

Aside from that, it was pretty interesting to see how many people recycled and how a lot of people don’t know much about laser printers. Keeping in mind that this was done in London and how the world of printing might be different over there, these numbers sound about right to us. Frankly, 47% seems like a pretty high percentage for the number of people recycling. It’s sad to say, but most people probably still just throw their cartridges away. As far as laser printers go, most people don’t realize that in the long run it is cheaper to use them. They just see the upfront costs and don’t realize that buying individual ink cartridges can quickly add up. But, since lately the cost of laser printers has gone down and the cost of ink has gone up, more people have begun to realize that laser printers can be used outside of the office.

Konica Minolta Survey Highlights Widespread Printer Confusion [Press Release]

From CNET:

HP’s first inkjet printer, introduced in 1984. HP Labs devised thermal inkjet printing, with the first models called “thinkjets.” Although the thinkjet name disappeared, inkjet printers did go on to replace dot-matrix printers.

A trip down HP’s memory lane [CNET]

Brother announced today that they are releasing three new color inkjets to replacing existing models. The new all-in-ones are the MFC-240c, the MFC-440cn and the MFC-665cw. They are all flatbed all-in-ones and they will all retail for under $200. Brother said these machines have all been designed to have a small footprint, thus we have to assume they are pretty sleek.

The the print speeds that Brother lists are 25 pages per minute black and 20 ppm color for MFC-240c and the MFC-440cn, and then up to 27 ppm black and 22 ppm color for the MFC-665cw. They don’t list the specifics on the resolutions for each machine, only that it goes up to 6000 x 1200 dpi. It’s possible that is the resolution for all three machines, but we’re assuming it’s just for the most expensive one. Also, the MFC-240c and MFC-440cn are network-ready and the MFC-665cw has built-in wireless.

All three models use the standard Brother four-ink system, but they will use the new LC-51 “Innobella” technology from Brother. What the heck does Inobella mean? Who knows. The closest translation we could find was in Italian it means “beautiful hymn.” Regardless, it just means that Brother has finally jumped on board with everyone else who has already named their ink. HP has Vivera, Canon has ChromaLife and Epson has UltraChrome - it’s only fair Brother should also have a strange name for their stuff.

You can get more specifics, like how the MFC-665cw has a digital answering machine that stores up to 29 minutes, in the full press release below.

Brother International Corporation Continues to Set Price/Performance Standards for Color Inkjet All-in-Ones [Press Release]

Canon announced the arrival of three new models today, the PIXMA iP6700D, PIXMA iP6310D and the PIXMA iP1700 Photo Printers. Unlike Canon’s last release of new PIXMA printers, these models seem more like updates to existing printers rather than anything new or original.

PIXMA iP6700D - this is a six-color machine that is an update of the iP6600D. Canon touts this printer’s ability to edit photos on a 3.5″ LCD and to print a preview sheet with 35 images. They also note that their Canon-to-Canon Direct Advantage allows you to easily hook up your (expensive) Canon SLR and seamlessly spend a fortune using Canon brand ink and paper. The estimated retail price is $200.

PIXMA iP6310D - another six-color machine that supports digital cameras, some types of memory cards, DV camcorders, camera phones and other gadgets that use Canon’s PictBridge technology. This printer has a resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi and prints a 4 x 6 in about a minute - which is basically what 90% of today’s printers claim to do. The estimated retail price is $100.

PIXMA iP1700 - with an estimated selling prince of $50, this is obviously Canon’s official bargain printer. This is just an update of the iP1600, which is being phased out by Canon, and there aren’t really any new/additional features. Canon mentions this printer’s ability to print laser-sharp text, which is their way of saying “this isn’t a photo printer.”

Nothing too exciting with these releases since they are just updating their old stuff. So, if you have a printer that is being replaced by one of these new releases, you don’t need to upgrade. If you were thinking of buying one of the models that is being replaced, then either now is the time to get a good deal or you should hold out a couple of months.

These printers will be available sometime later this summer.

Canon Launches New Lineup of Pixma Photo Printers Emphasizing High Performance, Ease-of-Use and Design [Press Release]

Amazon has the Canon PIXMA iP4200 on sale for $70.89, down from the list price of $129.99. This is just a regular sale, so there is no mail-in rebate or coupon code. This is a good sale, but since it is Amazon, they could raise the price up without warning in a couple of days.

Currently the PIXMA iP4200 is the top-selling inkjet printer on Amazon and it has been on top of the list for a while now. The main reason for that is its combination of price and performance. This printer also features double-sided printing, something you really aren’t going to find on other models in this price range. Mostly all the online reviews and customer feedback for the iP4200 have been positive. You can see an example of that here.

If you already own this printer, you can head over to our site for Canon iP4200 cartridges.