Canon, Lexmark, and Samsung Usher In Higher Prices

Canon and Samsung are the latest printer manufacturers ( referred to as OEMs) to climb aboard the price increase bandwagon. Lexmark, which began January with supplies price increases, has since announced some additional upward pricing action on popular cartridges.

Canon
Canon will be raising prices on toner cartridges for laser printers, copiers and multi-functional printers (MFPs), as of April 1. Unfortunately, we do not have additional details on how much prices will increase on specific consumables. The increases will affect both dealer wholesale pricing and manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP).

Rumors are Canon will be increasing prices by at least 5 percent on imageRUNNER, imageRUNNER ADVANCE, and imagePRESS engines and accessories as well as selected software products. The company said pricing for toner, drums, and other parts for production machines would remain unchanged.

Samsung
Samsung will raise prices for supplies as of June 1. Prices for select monochrome (black) toner supplies will increase 3 percent on average, while color toner supplies will see a higher average price increase of 7 percent. The company noted that there will be still higher price increases on certain color value packs. Both wholesale and MSRP pricing will be affected. Samsung attributed the price hike to “increased material costs and fluctuations in market conditions.”

Lexmark
In December, Lexmark announced that it would increase pricing for the majority of its ink and toner cartridges by between 3 and 7 percent as of January 1. Apparently, this increase was not widespread enough because at the end of February, the Company announced that it would increase pricing on selected laser supplies by 2 percent as of April 1. Lexmark said the increase does not impact laser supplies that were affected by the January 1 increase.

Level playing field for OEMs, opportunity for aftermarket
Hewlett Packard's (HP) and Lexmark’s separate decisions to start the New Year with price increases were potentially risky. There was the chance that the companies would lose some sales to rival printer manufacturers (Konica-Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Brother, Xerox and Okidata) with lower-priced supplies. However, the same set of unfortunate circumstances that impacted these firms’ businesses impacted many others, and several other OEM manufacturers have since instituted price increases of their own. With most printer vendors raising supplies prices, the playing field is essentially level, with no one OEM being able to claim it is holding a unique advantage after 2012’s pricing actions.

Of course, third-party supplies vendors do stand to benefit from these OEM supplies price increases. Higher prices on original supplies make end users, who are, after all, also suffering the effects of a lousy economy, that much more likely to use remanufactured or compatible cartridges.

History shows that upward price movement on products relates directly to consumer interest in searching out an alternative option. Remanufactured "Made in America" consumable products maybe today's best value.

Original source: Canon, Lexmark, and Samsung Usher In Higher Prices