HP offers two capacities across cartridge range

HP has revamped its range of inkjet cartridges to offer at least two capacities for each model of printer launched within the past seven years.

A new "specialty" cartridge, offering higher-quality colours for photographs, will also be available for many printers. One effect will be to allow owners of older models the option of using the latest ink technology.

Jaimi Cyrus, marketing director of printing product supplies for Europe, said HP has made the move because it realise from market studies that there where different types of customers even for the same class of printer.

Some used a printer only occasionally and were looking for low start-up costs; others printed more and were concerned with value over the long term.

The three new classes of cartridge will have colour-coded packaging: blue for standard, green for value, and red for specialty; value cartridge model numbers will have an XL suffix. The system is complicated by the fact that HP has had to retain model numbers of old cartridges, so that a 'value' cartridge may be numbered differently from a 'specialty' one for the same printer.

Cyrus gave the advantage of a blue-coded standard 350 cartridge with a recommended prince in Europe of €14.99 (about £10); the green-coded 350XL cartridge will costs €29.99 (about £20), giving a page yield up to five times greater and saving up to 55 percent on running costs.

The corresponding red-coded cartridge, numbered 348, will cost €23.99.
Future cartridges will all have the same model number across the three classes.

But HP says the new colour-coding system, as well as providing old and new customers with more choice, will also make things simpler. "We're redesigning the customer experience that choosing the right orginal HP supplies has never been easier."