Re: The 1270-Bad news

[rafeb <rafeb@channel1.com>]

At 10:38 PM 2/11/00 -0600, Steve Jacobson wrote:

>I saw the 1270 at the Seybold show on Thursday. 
<snip>
>Bottom line:  Unless the 3rd party ink folks (like WeInk, MediaStreet, etc.)
>figure out how to either: 1) externally reset the chip, 2) fool the printer
>into using a cart that doesn't have a chip, or 3) somehow reverse
>engineering a chip to build a new 3rd party cart with chip in it, the days
>of refilling or 3rd party carts is over.
>
>Epson intends to do this with all their new printers.


Grave news.  Only one question remaining is:
does Epson plan to keep this a proprietary 
system, or will it be open?  If the system 
is open, no sweat.  It will raise the price
of the carts, of course...

Even if first case holds (proprietary) unless
this scheme is patent-protected, someone may 
reverse-engineer it before long.

I'm frankly surprised at this news.  If this
is true, then Epson is clearly aiming to shut
down the 3rd-party ink/virgin cartdridge 
suppliers and all us refillers.  It makes a
statement about how Epson sees us as a 
market segment.  (Ie., not worth the bother.)

The main thing we can do to show our displeasure 
to Epson is to act responsibly as consumers.  
Don't buy these new printers.  Tell your 
friends not to buy them either.  Tell Epson
why you're annoyed.



rafe b.


-
Please turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use
accurate subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for instructions.