pixellany

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Ahem...

A CIS has nothing to do with quality control, print quality, etc. It simply relieves you from having to change cartridges. The downside is that--if you don't print often enough--it can clog up.

The reputable ink suppliers typical sell CIS setups, but just because someone is selling CIS does not establish that they have good inks.

Mistoffeles

Although the manufacturers claim that third party inks will clog and damage your printer, most of that is smoke and mirrors. The only reason they don't want you to buy third party inks is because if you do that, they won't make money off you. They have already sold you their printer at a loss, because they expect to make it back on the overpriced ink cartridges. It's a hunk of plastic with a simple film-printed circuit, a nozzle and some coloured dye, there is no way that is worth what they charge for them. It is the same as early laser printer toner cartridges, where an HP exec was fired because he openly admitted at a business party that they charge what the market will bear, not the materials cost plus a reasonable profit.

There are some manufacturers of third party ink to watch out for, but you can find that in consumer reviews. Most of the crap manufacturers have gone out of business.

cantab

For what it's worth, that's more-or-less how virtually everything is priced. You charge what you think will maximise your profits. It's like Microsoft selling a zillion versions of Windows - it actually costs them more than just selling the most featureful version, but it gives them more revenue than just selling one version. Printer manufacturers have been up to it as well - two printers can be hardware-identical, with firmware in the cheaper one to slow it down.

You are right that third party inks are unlikely to damage your printer - especially with brands like HP where the printhead is part of the cartridge.

Mistoffeles

It's a bit different, because of the way the cartridges go with the printers. If you go to buy a watch, they are competitively prices because you can go buy any watch, it's not connected to anything else, unless you have a Ferrari watch and a Ferrari sports car, in which case you don't care how much your ink cartridges cost

With printers, if you buy only the printer manufacturer's cartridge, you have to pay their price. You can't buy a Canon cartridge for an HP printer. Refills and third party cartridges break that stranglehold, so the manufacturers contrive some bullshit story about how third party ink destroys your printer, and they void your warranty if you use them. I don't really care, when you can buy the printers so cheaply that it's almost cheaper to buy a new printer when the old one's ink cartridges run out.