Printer Fire Sale

The ink jet printer is a classic example of the Razor/Razorblade Theory of Economics. Giveaway the razor (printer) and sell lots of blades (ink jet refills). Over the past few years shoddy ink jet printers with Chevy Suburban-like appetites for guzzling fuel (ink) have dominated the low cost market. This Fall however, a price war between printer powerhouses Canon, HP and Epson will deliver quality ink jets, not junk, to the consumer at fire sale prices.

The first out of the box is Epson's $50 Stylus Color 480SX ink jet printer (three years ago a similar ink jet printer sold for $200). Now, for less than a stadium seat at 3Com Park, you can get a four color, 720 dpi (dots per inch) printer that prints a respectable 4 pages per minute in black and 2.2 pages per minute in color. Great for the family or small office on a budget , the printer connects via USB or parallel port and offers the same photo printing capabilities as Epson's existing $200 printers. www.epson.com.