Kodak and HP: War of Words – and Prices!
Kodak and HP are not letting up of their advertising war – at least it seems to be that way, based on a news feature. Kodak has now agreed to modify its claims to be more clear about how the annual savings that they are claiming consumers can enjoy by switching to Kodak can be achieved, which only prompted HP to say all the more that they had been trying to mislead consumers with their claims.
The “word war” was reportedly being fought on Twitter by Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Hayzlett and HP Imaging and Printing Group Head of Social Media Strategy Angela LoSasso. LoSasso reportedly published links that criticized the marketing claims of Kodak as well as the reliability of Kodak printers, to which Hayzlett reportedly responded by saying “Shame on your tactics Big Ink.” LoSasso then was said to have responded “You have a fight you can’t possibly win. I am HP.”
And as if dissing each other was not enough, the two companies are apparently trying to put one over the other in terms of slashing prices; this is something that is good, though, at least for the consumers. For instance, in Best Buy alone, three Kodak multifunction printers are being sold at discounted prices that range from 25% to 40% off, and HP printers are being sold for as much as 30% off.
HP is also saying that aside from trying to mislead consumers, Kodak is selling printers that are highly unreliable. On Friday, HP reportedly tried to convince an owner of a Kodak printer on Twitter to get “cash for that clunker” by offering a $50 trade-in credit for HP printers. For its part, Kodak is also offering a $50 trade-in credit at Best Buy.
According to the feature, the prices of printers were an exception this holiday season. While other electronic gadgets were not as discounted as they were last year, prices for printers have gone down.
Tags: HP versus Kodak printer, kodak claims, kodak versus HP, kodak warRelated posts
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Loading ...Posted by PrintFriendly on December 22nd, 2009
3 Comments »
Kodak’s print head is not built into the unit, if a print head should fail, and problems with some the kodak print heads were from printers three years ago by the way. All you have to do is call Kodak and give them the service tag number.
Kodak will send out a new print head. My father has one of the first Kodak printers from three years ago, and Kodak replaced it at no cost ever after the warranty period ended. I keep track of my ink costs and I have determined that I am saving about $180.00 a year with the Kodak. My old HP used a cartridge that cost $69.00 for a black and a color, the kodak two pack is only $22.95.
I can purchase three Kodak two packs for the one ink package from HP. Do not be fooled by packaging, HP has on some printers three different ink cartridges will different amounts of ink, one for photo prints, just enough to do some 4×6 prints, another that is half ink and a XL cartridge with full ink.
I and a member of my family have been using two of the Kodak printers for well over a year now, and, yes, exactly how much you’ll save depends on how much you print–no surprise there. But we figure we’ve saved a lot in ink costs over the Epson and HP printers that the Kodaks have replaced while getting high quality, long-lasting prints. (You don’t need to go to questionable no-name catridges to save money.) Plus, since all the Kodak printers use the same cartridge set, it’s simple to find replacements when you need them. Note that the HP guy said he’s going to win because “I am HP!” not because they are right. That says something–and it ain’t good for the customer.
December 22, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
The sad truth is that most of the new printers are only going to last about 2 years if the consumer is lucky. In the case of the new Kodak machine, these machines are ink-tank systems with internal fixed print heads. Print heads will last about 2-3 years. Because the machine has an internal fixed print head there is no option to replace the print heads without the price of doing so far out weighing the price for the machine itself.
Cavet Emptor!! If you are looking for a machine with ink tank style cartridges, make sure you also have the ability to replace the print head when it is worn out, otherwise you will find yourself purchasing a new machine every couple of years. I don’t see where HP or Kodak have included this in there so-called “cost savings”.