Epson Printer

Epson is perhaps best known for their ubiquitous personal inkjet printers. Epson inkjets are in homes, small businesses, and corporate work-spaces all over the world. They have proven to not be satisfied with this share of the market, though, and have started to focus more energy and resources into specialty printing machines and laser printers.

One of Epson’s major advantages in selling to the consumer and small business markets is the relatively low cost of their replacement inkjet cartridges. Most of Epson’s printers use permanent print-heads, which means their cartridges do not need their own print-heads–reducing their cost. The only downfall to this strategy is that if your print-head gets damaged (however unlikely) you may need a new printer.

Epson’s main focus in the specialty, consumer market is photo printing. With the remarkable rise in digital photography and desktop photo processing, this market seems primed for steady growth in the coming decades. Epson is in a good place to exploit this new dynamic because of their focus on consumer color printing. Epson has always been known for the quality of their color inkjet printers, and digital photography relies on this level of print quality.

Another bonus of using an Epson printer rises from the fact that there are numerous outlets for compatible and refilled cartridges. Unlike Lexmark (who is notoriously stingy with their cartridge specifications), Epson has made less of an issue of after-market or off-brand cartridges. This is possibly because their cartridges are less expensive to begin with, so many consumers just stick with the OEMs. However, there are some deals to be had, so if you do a large amount of printing, it’s worth the time to do a few price comparisons.