Epson's new EcoTank printers hold two years worth of ink, cost between $400-$500 and replacement cannisters of ink will cost $52
Review: Epson Kills the Printer Ink Cartridge — The new EcoTank printers cost more up front but can churn for years without running dry
Context & Ripple Effects
Epson's EcoTank line inverts the classic printer deal: instead of selling cheap hardware and recouping margin on cartridges, it charges $400-$500 up front for machines that hold roughly two years of ink, then sells replacement cannisters at $52. The review frames this as Epson 'killing the cartridge' — a direct attack on the recurring-consumables model that has underwritten printer-industry profits.
That model is worth real money downstream: five years later, HP's printer business was the prize in Xerox's Icahn-backed takeover battle, a fight Bloomberg valued at potentially $35B-plus. Epson's move targets exactly the annuity stream that makes print assets attractive.
First-order effects
- High-volume home and small-office buyers get a fixed-cost alternative: one $400-$500 purchase plus $52 refills replaces unpredictable per-cartridge spending over a multi-year horizon.
- Epson shifts its own revenue mix toward upfront hardware sales, trading guaranteed cartridge margin for a lower-frequency cannister sale every two years per machine.
Second-order effects
- Rivals whose profits rest on cartridge economics — HP most prominently, given its print division's role in the later Xerox-HP fight — face pressure to match tank-based refill pricing or cede the high-volume segment to Epson.
- HP's response visible in the coverage is portfolio diversification rather than price war: premium all-in-ones like the EliteOne 1000 and an early push into industrial 3D printing with the $130K Jet Fusion, building hardware-led revenue less exposed to ink commoditization.
Third-order effects
- If refill-tank pricing becomes table stakes across the industry, the structural value of print consumables erodes — weakening precisely the recurring-margin logic that made printer businesses takeover targets and forcing consolidation around scale players.
- Hardware differentiation (speed, resolution, form factor) replaces consumables lock-in as the competitive axis, favoring vendors with engineering breadth across print categories, from desktop tanks to industrial additive systems.
The trend: The printer industry is moving from razor-and-blades consumables lock-in toward prepaid-capacity hardware models, and the fight over HP's print arm showed just how much value was riding on the old model.