Re: Lexmark loses twice?
"I'm pretty certain that Lexmark are out of the new inkjet market."
Apparently this is correct- Wikipedia sez (complete with refs):
"In August 2012, Lexmark announced that it would stop production of its inkjet printer line. Lexmark will continue to provide service, support and aftermarket supplies for its inkjet installed base."
Ironic considering that circa 15 years ago Lexmark was the brand probably most associated with dirt cheap consumer printers requiring horribly overpriced replacement carts. (#)
But I'm pretty sure they'd declined long before they exited that market; the company I've worked for since 2007- which deals in compatible ink carts among other things- always sold a lot more Epson, Canon, HP and Brother inks, and we stopped selling Lexmark compatibles completely several years back.
(#) Of course, you'd get people thinking they were clever by saying "oh, I can buy a new printer that comes with a cartridge for cheaper than the cartridge itself". Aside from the obnoxious waste, and the fact that these came with (what are weaselishly-described as) "starter" or "light use" cartridges- i.e. half full- this line of thinking was what I liked to call "Lexmark Logic".
If you spend (say) £30 on a new Lexmark inkjet instead of £35 on new cartridges, you're still effectively paying £30 every time for a new set of cartridges! Wherease if NiceCo sells theirs for £50 and the carts cost £10, you break even after buying the first replacement set and save tons thereafter.
The fact that the free ink cart you get with a new Lexmark printer (or whatever) is "worth" £35- rather than NiceCo's similar £10 one- might look good until you realise it means the exact opposite. The more overpriced the replacement carts, the more that poxy little free ink cart that came with the printer is "worth". Hey, the carts for this Lexmark are £500 for 10ml. That means I'm getting £500 of ink with this printer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111
But hey... cheap printer and sticking it to The Man. *cough* Lexmark Logic.