The Telegraph in the UK just reported today that Lexmark may be getting out of the Inkjet Printer business. According to the Telegraph, Lexmark, a US printer manufacturer, is to stop making inkjet printers to focus on other parts of its business.
Why is this good news? Well, Lexmark (who also makes the printers for Dell), makes arguable the worst quality printers and ink cartridges on the market. According to a study that they themselves sponsored in order to "shed light" on failures of the remanufacturing industry, their own OEM (original brand) Lexmark Inkjet Cartridges failed out the box or prematurely at a significant rate. This also translates into more quality issues for remanufactured cartridges, because a remanufactured Lexmark ink cartridge is only as good as the components it starts with. Lexmark has also been strongly anti-refills, making their cartridges more and more complicated to refill, so an exit by Lexmark from the inkjet printer business would be great news for remanufacturers and consumers alike. HP and other printer makers have a much better quality product, and are more refill friendly.
