HP ink cartridge plans to update market

Employees could have the opportunity to reduce the overall cost of their office machines following Hewlett Packard (HP’s) decision to offer two types of inkjet printer cartridges with its consumer printers.

Instead of the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ package, the group will be offering a smaller and larger version of inkjet printer cartridge.

The cartridges can be used on an interchangeable basis, which means that larger black HP printer cartridges could be used alongside a smaller colour cartridge.

The development could bring significant cost-saving benefits to office supplies annual totals, with an XL cartridge believed to cost between 30 and 45 per cent less than a conventional one.

Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of HP’s Supplies, told IT Week: "We are fundamentally revamping our inkjet cartridge portfolio in a way that provides more choice and much greater value, and simplifies the shopping experience for our customers."

Describing it as a "fairly momentous" change, Mr Jotwani added: "This is a pretty fundamental change that we want to declare."

The group also announced that the new office equipment will be colour-coded.

While standard printer cartridges will be packaged in blue, the XL format will have a green box.