Lexmark dumps inkjet arm, sacks 1,700

Lexmark is to shut down its inkjet printing manufacturing and research operations, although it will continue to support and supply existing hardware and is keeping its laser printing division. "Today's announcement represents difficult decisions, which are necessary to drive improved profitability and significant savings," …

[Stuart 22]

Betrayed by your management

Really sorry for the 1,700 but the closure of the inkjet business leaves me cold.

Lexmark were even more enthusiastic than HP in virtually giving their printers away in order to sell ink. Trouble is, unlike HP, their printers tended to throw in the towel before the included cartidges were empty. Too engineered down in price. Self defeating business model.

I don't know whether quality improved as when you have disappointed a customer once too often they seldom return to find out.

[ThomH]

Re: Betrayed by your management

More than that, one suspects the inkjets were dragging down the brand. Would you spend a proper amount of money on a laser printer from that company primarily known for all-but-disposable £30 giveaway inkjets, or would you try to pick something more psychologically trustworthy?

[Robert E A Harvey]

@ThomH Re: Betrayed by your management

Bit difficult to find a vendor who isn't chasing the bottom of the market

[Danny 14]

Re: @ThomH Betrayed by your management

good sized epson and canon printers are OK. Look for a printer that has a CIS designed for it, if it has then it most likely will last. (We have a couple of ancient epson R360 and R2400 that have had their ink pad counters reset a few times - the ink drains to a bottle so no pad to actually change).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Betrayed by your management

Yes. IIRC Lexmark's (formerly IBM) background is in laser imagers and dot matrix, both of which are still very good product lines, even the budget lasers. The inkjet printers were always a bit of a byline for unreliability and short lifetimes though. I would still choose a Lexmark machine over an HP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Time Computers

Lexmark rep was a stunning lass called Gail....She was an absolute stunner....Was worth buying Lexmark just to have her visit us...Still, i was never able to find decent Lexmark compatible cartridges.....

[J.T]

Re: Time Computers

Lexmark cartridges had a chip in them, for a while someone was manufacturing knockoffs and Lexmark sued them out of existance using the US DMCA to claim the company was bypassing the electronic protections on the chip.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lexmark who? can't remember the last time I heard their name, must have been about 7 years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here you go... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSK1D3bZhRs

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure what it has been like the past few years but I could never recommend Lexmark to people mainly due to the sky high price of ink compared to other brands. Not talking fancy ink either, just the basic stuff.

[Robert E A Harvey]

Not to mention

Lack of Unix support, pathetic drivers, and dreadful after-sales support

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not to mention

Lexmark laser printers have excellent Linux/BSD/OS X support due to them running CUPS and Bonjour internally.

[Robert E A Harvey]

Paperless office

I'm beginning to wonder if all printer manufacturers aren't facing the profit crapper.

I can see a future where no-one wants to make them. We could end up with the paperless office after all.

[Comments are attributed to your handle]

"synergies"

Ugh, that word. Burn it with fire!

[Big-nosed Pengie]

Re: "synergies"

At least they didn't use "leveraged".

[banjomike]

Good riddance to the lousy injets & ink

...shame about the people.

[MrT]

That 95 million saving...

... is that per person who used to buy original Lexmark cartridges - or the even more expensive Xerox-badged versions?

[Andy]

i worked closely with lexmark during my time with RBS... repacking their drivers was an absolute mare but HP's were far worse. on the other hand the devices were better made than the comparable hp models.. and yes the lexmark rep i used to see and speak was lovely on the eyes

[Anonymous Coward]

Short half life printers

The Lexmark all-in-one I bought for home use in June didn't make it thru the first set of cartridges before the printhead died. On line support was remarkably unhelpful. So the news that the company is dumping the whole inkjet line doesn't surprise me. The only question is if that my experience of their kit and support is more general, will the company survive?

[Fihart]

Printing ? It's so last week!

Most of the bright young things who are my neighbours don't seem to own printers. When it comes to printing out their Ryanair/Easyjet boarding passes they come knocking on my door (I'm not complaining).

It seems odd to an older user who automatically bought a dot matrix or daisywheel with the first personal computers because the primary use was word processing.

Inkjet was the first affordable technology to produce decent print quality -- but reliability went out of the window as colour and models with higher resolution (finer nozzles) came in. Luckily, laser printer prices sank dramatically and I can't remember when I last used an inkjet.

[PeterM42]

GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........

Lexmark printers, including the ones badged and sold by Dell, are COMPLETE CRAP, so it is good to see the manufacturing going where it belongs - on the shit heap. Hope their designers look for jobs where they can cause fewer problems (start with road sweeping in Outer Mongolia.).

[David Gosnell]

"necessary to drive improved profitability and significant savings"

"necessary to drive improved profitability and significant savings"

and that's just for the customers, no longer over the barrel with ridiculously-priced consumables...

[Ascylto]

23456

We employ just 50 people now.

So, what can I buy?

Err... well, we don't actually sell anything. But the Managers and bean-counters still get their bonuses!