This should prove interesting - someone make us aware of this yesterday on the comp.periphs.printers newsgroup - I've registered for the webcast.
Breaking the Model: Will Chinese Consumers Force Printer OEMs to Give Up Their Razors and Blades?
Jan 16 2007 @ 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
Register here.
http://www.webcastgroup.com/client/start.asp?wid=0660116073085
For more than a decade, the printer industry has counted on a lucrative combination of low-cost hardware that draws in buyers and high-priced supplies that deliver some of the best margins of any business. But now printer manufacturers are running head-on into cost-conscious Chinese consumers who just say no to expensive cartridges.
HP has responded with its Simple Black cartridge line, which delivers inferior print quality for a lower price. But now Epson, has gone one big step further, and made low-cost cartridges the centerpiece of its Chinese consumer printer marketing strategy. If this strategy sells printers, competitors will have no choice but to respond in kind, and not just in China. The industry could be facing something it has quietly dreaded for years: a consumables pricing nuclear war that melts the razor-and-blades model and incinerates the industrys rich profit margins.
Join Lyras Charles LeCompte, president, and Jiqiang Rong, director of primary research, for a free Webcast on Tuesday, January 16 at 2 p.m. eastern standard time. Find out the impact Epsons strategy could have on the rest of the imaging industry. From OEM to aftermarket, this live Webcast is an event you must attend.
Breaking the Model: Will Chinese Consumers Force Printer OEMs to Give Up Their Razors and Blades?
Jan 16 2007 @ 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
Register here.
http://www.webcastgroup.com/client/start.asp?wid=0660116073085
For more than a decade, the printer industry has counted on a lucrative combination of low-cost hardware that draws in buyers and high-priced supplies that deliver some of the best margins of any business. But now printer manufacturers are running head-on into cost-conscious Chinese consumers who just say no to expensive cartridges.
HP has responded with its Simple Black cartridge line, which delivers inferior print quality for a lower price. But now Epson, has gone one big step further, and made low-cost cartridges the centerpiece of its Chinese consumer printer marketing strategy. If this strategy sells printers, competitors will have no choice but to respond in kind, and not just in China. The industry could be facing something it has quietly dreaded for years: a consumables pricing nuclear war that melts the razor-and-blades model and incinerates the industrys rich profit margins.
Join Lyras Charles LeCompte, president, and Jiqiang Rong, director of primary research, for a free Webcast on Tuesday, January 16 at 2 p.m. eastern standard time. Find out the impact Epsons strategy could have on the rest of the imaging industry. From OEM to aftermarket, this live Webcast is an event you must attend.