HP kick out some new printer technology

[Joe]

The new inkjet platform, which will initially be geared toward the high end of the market, will incorporate the print head in the printer itself rather than in the ink cartridge. Why does this matter? It means cheaper prints for consumers (about 24 cents per photo print) and faster output. HP says it has more than halved the time it takes to print a 4-inch-by-6-inch photo, to 14 seconds. The price compares favorably to commercial photo-printing services from companies like Eastman Kodak (nyse: EK - news - people ), which cost around 29 cents per print, but they're not as cheap as Snapfish[/b'], which charges 19 cents including shipping, according to Merrill Lynch. Snapfish is owned by HP.

It also means improved print quality. The new manufacturing process allows HP to fit 3,900 or more microscopic ink nozzles on a single print head, compared to 1,266 nozzles on past designs. That means the print head can move faster across a page, as well as turn out documents with more colors and higher image quality.

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