Stinky Ink News

Stinkyink now have Lexmark No 2 Original ink cartridges in stock. Until recently we could only get hold of remanufactured versions. These cartridges fit the Lexmark Z738, X2480 and X3480 inkjet printers. These ink jet printers are sold at some of the high street stores and original cartridges could only be bought from these stores until now.

So if you have one of these new printers and need ink, instead of the hassle of driving to the store or paying delivery on your cartridge visit us at Stinkyink for a great deal and same day despatch with free delivery.

Printer sales in China are growing so strongly that local firms may attempt to buy control of a major foreign printer maker to ensure a stake in the domestic market and a slice of international sales.

Sales of laser printers in China are expanding particularly fast, driven by business users, according to recent data from Lyra Research.

“Strong printer growth is expected to continue throughout the forecast period [to 2010], particularly in the laser printer market, as China’s business users prefer laser output to inkjet for their mainstream business printing,” said Lyra Research analysts Larry Jamieson and Ji Rong.

Total laser revenue, including hardware, cartridges and media, is expected to surpass $5bn by 2010.

Analysts suggest that a Chinese firm might attempt buy a foreign printer manufacturer to jump-start local printer manufacturing.

US printer maker Lexmark is the most commonly named target for such an acquisition attempt.

Giant Chinese PC vendor Lenovo is seen as the most likely buyer, perhaps as leader of a consortium, and almost certainly with government support.

“Lenovo wants to have an internationally competitive printer business within two to five years. We believe the company is very serious,” said the Lyra analysts.

“We checked with Hong Liu, assistant vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s peripheral business department, who confirmed this to us.”

As Lenovo’s largest shareholder, China’s government, supported Lenovo’s purchase of IBM’s PC division last year, would be unlikely to object to a Lexmark purchase, the analysts believe.

Lexmark is profitable, unlike the IBM unit, and reported revenues of $1.23bn in the most recent quarter, up 1.6 per cent on a year earlier. The company’s share price has climbed steadily this year, and it now has a market capitalisation of $6.5bn.

Lenovo currently has around $1bn in cash reserves, but this figure is expected to fall. “If a purchase is made, it is not clear who would actually write the check,” said Jamieson.

“But the government would almost certainly contribute funds, either through Lenovo or through a consortium if one is formed.”

China is attracted by the high margins available from toner cartridges and other printer consumables, analysts believe, but wants to make sure it owns some of the technology in order to avoid the drain of high royalty fees to patent holders.

As China’s leaders attempt to push the country’s industry forward, their concerns go beyond mere economics.

“The Chinese government is extremely anxious to move Chinese industry beyond simple assembly, since the country now faces serious competition from countries such as Vietnam and India,” said the Lyra analysts.

“If it fails to achieve this, the ramifications are huge. Millions of angry, unemployed workers could lead to political turmoil and, conceivably, the fall of the government.”

Hardware vendors Samsung Electronics and Epson have both today launched new colour laser multifunction printer lines. Epson’s four-in-one Aculaser CX21N machines are aimed at SMB and enterprise workgroups, whilst Samsung’s ‘world’s smallest’ CLX-2160 colour laser MFP family is squarely aimed at small and home office buyers.

Samsung’s new release is available in two configurations – the standard compact CLX-2160 and the workgroup-ready, LAN-enabled CLX-2160N. Both tout print and copy speeds of 16ppm (mono) and 4ppm (colour), as well as USB flash disk slots and ‘Scan to USB’ functionality.

Designed as an on-desk print solution, the CLX-2160 offers a maximum 2400dpi print resolution and its black and three coloured toner cartridges offer Samsung-quoted yields of 2000 and 1000 pages.

Epson’s new Aculaser CX21N machine meanwhile offers more functionality than the Samsung, in that it includes not only print, copy and scan capabilities but a fax function too.

Touting Epson-quoted print speeds of 25ppm in monochrome and 5ppm in colour, the CX21N is a network-enabled device that packs in support for key printer languages – such as PCL6, PCL5c and Adobe PostScript 3 – and claims both a maximum monthly print volume of 45,000 pages and an in-tray capacity of up to 680 sheets at a time.

Toner cartridges for both machines are available online at Stinkyink.com

Samsung launches world’s smallest all-in-one ‘desktop’ color laser printer the Samsung CLP300.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s second largest laser printer manufacturer, reinforced its global leadership in the mini-color laser all-in-one market with the launch of the world’s most compact and lightest color laser multi-function unit, the Samsung CLX-2160 series.

Available in retail stores, the Samsung CLX-2160 series leverages on the company’s expertise in digital convergence and improves its existing printer’s line-up by offering added features to serve the needs of the growing small office/ home office market.

Merging cutting edge design with uncompromised performance, the all-in-one CLX2160 offers the functionalities of printing, scanning and photo copying.

The printer’s stylish and compact design - 41.3cm x 36.3cm x 38.3cm - allows it to be operated from a regular desk. The printer’s height has further been reduced by 15cm to allow for users to print, copy and scan while seated.

The unveiling of the CLX-2160 follows the successful launch of the CLX-3160FN - the world’s smallest 4-in-1 color laser printer (46.6cm x 42.9cm x 48.6cm) in 2006.

Here at Stinkyink Towers we have both Samsung original Toner and also compatible Toner cartridges all the colour toner cartridges in stock and ready to ship

A company formed from IBM’s printing division has begun operation as a separate entity.

InfoPrint Solutions was announced in January, when IBM revealed that it would partner with Ricoh to spin off its Printing Systems Division into a new company that would progressively be absorbed into Ricoh.

Big Blue will continue to offer InfoPrint Solutions products to its customers and will provide support for the new company, which will inherit a customer base that generated more that $1bn in revenue last year.

IBM also expects that as many as 1,000 of its employees may move to the new business.

“With this launch, we have created a billion-dollar enterprise with the backing of two undisputed industry leaders. Together, we will drive the next generation of innovation in output solutions,” said former IBM Printing Systems head Tony Romero, who will serve as chief executive of InfoPrint Solutions.

Ricoh has paid IBM $725m for a 51 per cent stake in the new entity, as well as prepayment for the remaining 49 per cent transferred over the next three years and “certain royalties and services” to be provided by IBM.

Ricoh hopes that the acquisition will allow it to tap into IBM’s status as an enterprise computing heavyweight and give the printing company access to Big Blue’s vast customer base.

“Today is an historic moment for IBM and Ricoh and more importantly, an industry first,” declared Norio Tanaka, corporate senior vice president of the Production Printing Business Group at Ricoh.

“The creation of Infoprint Solutions brings together the best of two industry leaders, and greatly enhances the Ricoh portfolio of offerings.”

“It all boils down to a question of funding,” said Bob Kilcullen, senior vice president and general manager, InfoPrint solutions management. With the wide range of technologies IBM has in servers, storage, software and services, the vendor’s printing business wasn’t front of the line when it came to receiving investment for research and development (R&D). “Now we drop right into Ricoh’s strategic direction,” he added. “We go from side stage to center stage.”

InfoPrint will look to increase R&D across the board, filling in any gaps in its printer line-up, and integrating Ricoh’s print engine technology into its range of printers. The hope is that InfoPrint with Ricoh’s backing will be better positioned to compete against high-end printer competitors like Oce Technologies, Xerox and Eastman Kodak as well as rivals in the general office printer space, notably Hewlett-Packard.

The only potential area of overlap between IBM’s and Ricoh’s printing operations is in the low-end InfoPrint Express machines, Kilcullen said. IBM sourced those printers from Lexmark and InfoPrint plans to continue and expand that relationship. At the same time, Ricoh is an OEM supplier to Lexmark of print engines. “We’d like to form a three-way relationship to extend the relationships we have with Lexmark and with Ricoh to a higher degree,” he added. Trying to establish such a relationship is a highly complex matter but Kilcullen said that discussions with Lexmark are ongoing.

InfoPrint currently employs around 1,200 staff worldwide. For the first year of its operations, the company will draw on IBM’s printer maintenance experts to continue to provide maintenance services to customers. By June of next year, InfoPrint would look to take on most of those 1,000 experts. In practice, an IBM printer customer should be unaware of any change in maintenance support, with the same person servicing their printers this year and next year.

InfoPrint held a large party on Friday afternoon for employees at its Boulder, Colorado, headquarters to celebrate Monday’s opening for business. Although being spun off from IBM was a traumatic move for some staff, everyone was congratulating each other on the formation of InfoPrint, according to Kilcullen. “I could feel energy in the air,” he said. “This move is so positive for our business and it has been very well received”