Epson wants us to abandon those pesky inkjet cartridges forever

On Tuesday, printer giant Epson announced its new “EcoTank” models, starting at $400. Rather than forcing customers to buy highly profitable ink cartridges over and over again, this new offering comes with an ink reserve tank.

The new business model is to simply charge more for the printer up front, which comes with two years worth of ink. If you run out, Epson offers a set of replacements for $52.

As the Wall Street Journal calculated, spending for the same volume of XL cartridges would cost “more than 10 times as much.”