Are Canon Withdrawing From Domestic Printer Market

kah22

Went to Currys this morning to have a look at some printers. I'm a light, very light, user and my only concern was that it could print from an iPad or iPhone and was wireless

I was looking at a Canon printer, it ticked all the boxes for me. Was well within my price range of c£70. The Sales Assistant advised me not to touch it; Canon were going out of the printer business, they've already stopped producing ink, and their replacement ink at the moment is almost the same price as a new printer ! He then went on to try and hard sell a hp to me it was around about the same price and ticked all the boxes.

There is something wrong here, I thought to myself. Canon going out of the printer business, not producing any more ink for models already out there. Doesn't sound right at all!

Can anyone tell me if Canon are going out of the domestic printer market and what about the quality/cost of their product.

Perhaps I should say that I visited a Tesco store and the Sales Assistant there did tell me that they sold more hp and Epson printers than other models

Neil_Jones

Canon (genuine) Ink has always been expensive, even the non-genuine ink isn't much cheaper.

Kodak went to withdraw from the market a while back, as did Lexmark to concentrate on lasers, which left Epson and HP as the main market leaders in inkjet printers.

Canon is still around, if the website is anything to go by. 1394 outlets in the UK.

But that being said, printers are pretty much a loss-leading product with the real profit made on the ink for them.

angryparcel

Get at Epson
I have a XP215 with prints from iphone, iPad etc. and i get my inks from a guy i have used for the last 25 year on ebay for £9 for 3 full sets and say i dont use all my Cyan when i come to reorder then i can just place a message to what inks i want as long as the quantity is the same that i paid for.

ARandomMiser

If you are a very light user then consider a printer that has the print head built into the cartridge rather than the printer. That way if it gets blocked you can salvage the printer by replacing the cartridge.

I have an HP envy 5532 and have been very happy with it. I might print 20 or so pages 3-4 times a year, rest of the time i print about 2-3 pages a week. I use original low capacity cartridges which cost about £16 and last me about 9 months.

Strider590

I could count on one hand how many times i've needed a printer in the last 10 years.

If I need to keep anything (online order confirmations etc), I print them to PDF using CutePDF or PrimoPDF and I store them on my PC (and backup drive).

macman

I suspect that the member of staff you spoke to was pushing HP because they were offering a higher commission on that brand at the time, so he steered you away from Canon.
Printer ink has always been ludicrously expensive, simply because it subsidises the initial product purchase-that's how you get a 4 colour inkjet for as little as £70.
It is also possible that he was an HP rep and not a Curry's rep. This arrangement happens more than you might think: the manufacturers pay the retailer for allowing them to place an 'adviser' in store for x days. Even reputable stores such as JL do this, so DSG most certainly would.

kah22

Many thanks guys for all your replies. This has been very helpful to me, hopefully it will also help other members

Kevin

forgotmyname

I remember printers for under £10 if you bought a set of inks which cost between £20 and £60.

And how many sales assistants still reckon the carts provided in the printers are just enough to prime the machine and maybe print a test page?

angryparcel

forgotmyname wrote: »

And how many sales assistants still reckon the carts provided in the printers are just enough to prime the machine and maybe print a test page?

Inks provided with printers are usually 1/2 the capacity as retail packaged inks, these days some printers don't even come with any inks

kah22

Hi guys. I've decided to go for the hp 4527, Currys are selling it at £39.99 with free delivery John Lewis at also selling it at that price plus a £3.50 delivery charge but then they have a two year guarantee on the product.

JL are out of stock at the moment but as I'm in no big rush I'll give them 2 weeks to see what happens

What sold me on this model, price and reviews from JL customers and a positive Which? review

Supatramp

angryparcel wrote: »

Get at Epson
I have a XP215 with prints from iphone, iPad etc. and i get my inks from a guy i have used for the last 25 year on ebay for £9 for 3 full sets and say i dont use all my Cyan when i come to reorder then i can just place a message to what inks i want as long as the quantity is the same that i paid for.

What's the point of your post, extolling a great deal on ebay, but not telling us who the supplier is. Pointless!!!