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Home computer users have the most difficult choice to make when they're deciding whether to buy a printer - and if so which.

The home buyer has the least space, least money and usually rather less technical knowledge than a corporate buyer.

Home printing is also the most diverse. A wildlife photographer may also take holiday snaps but they probably want more sophistication from their camera and printer than the average home user. Publishing the parish magazine implies different costs to running off a copy of a school essay. Quite a lot of home printer users don't have or even want a PC, they want photographs.

Home buyers may have difficulty characterising and prioritising what they want. College essays, correspondence, colour brochures, holiday snaps, professional photographs, CD and DVD labelling, T-shirt printing, portability. All these things are available, but not necessarily from the same printer. Some things like the ability to print a book are only available at the cost of a lot of money for ink and some effort with paperclips or bindings.

Home buyers are most likely to go to a retail shop and take whatever is recommended. People like to see what they are buying. Unfortunately buying with your eyes isn't likely to be much help. A printer with a really pretty case might disguise unsatisfactory design and high running costs. Shops won't usually let you print much on the premises because the margin on a sale wouldn't cover the cost of ink. There may be some sample print-outs but they aren't likely to be very informative. Shop assistants can be expected to recommend things that earn them most commission.

The role of the retail shop in selling electronic goods is often the butt of jokes. Fifty years ago every high street had an electrical retailer selling all sort of goods and perhaps some specialising in radio and TV because these need aerials and replacement valves. These businesses declined as city centre showrooms with more choice delivering from warehouses on the edge of town took over. Transistorised circuits needed little or no epair. In Radio, TV and HiFI big brandname products all delivered rather similar performance so the showroom sales points were features and bargain offers. Almost innevitably this favours the "box shipper" in the long term.
 

A corporation can buy printers suited to specific tasks but a home user usually wants one printer to do every task.

Home and small scale printing is the most interesting market in many ways, not just diverse but large. People want printers to fit into a budget - but there are a lot of potential buyers. It's a big market. There are about a million businesses in the UK, but 20 million homes and 60 million individuals.

Home printing is also likely to be a lasting market. Business people tend to think that every printed page is essentially an error. Business data that has to be printed rather than read it on the screen suggests the business process isn't well designed. Home users don't think like this, a letter of thanks a card or a picture or a poem don't have meaning until they are printed. Home printers can produce things of real value, not just transient business messages.
 

More than half of households in places like the US and UK have a computer and the proportion will increase - so its a big market. However people at home don't print much or often - they send the odd letter, and their kids might produce school essays but there hasn't traditionally been much use for home printing. A lot of people save things on CD or flash-pen and print at work - perhaps not entirely legitimately.

Not printing much means people are sensitive to the purchase price of the printer - looking for what seems like a bargain. People may not be very interested in operating cost and might just assume that they'll all be pretty much the same.  -They aren't.
 

Inkjets are the most flexible design. The main body of the printer can be simple. The physical complexity is in the printheads and the support computer system - which is convenient because these parts are semiconductors and can be mass produced cheaply.

Many of the inkjet printers in any sales catalogues aim directly at home users.

In a complicated market sales are usually made on "features".
 
Colour is almost invariable on low cost inkjets in the home market. It may seem natural that everyone would want colour, but most correspondence and text doesn't traditionally use it. That may change, of course. 
Combined printer / scanner / fax machines are popular.  Adding a scanner doesn't cost the manufacturer much  - a glass sheet, CCD sensor and a couple of lenses makes a printer and scanner combination. Add a modem and its a fax. People can buy scanners for under £50 but integrate it with a printer and it's cheaper - they can share motors, computer support and interface.
Photographic interests are the key to what a lot of people want. The home market has driven technical advance here. Inkjet technology isn't ideal for photography, it is difficult to produce a greyscale or a wide colour -space (gamut). To get a really good looking picture manufacturers have had to produce machines with resolutions exceeding 2400 dpi. The advances in pritheads to do this have catalysed a new micromanufacturing industry. 
The idea is to mass manufacture the printer at a minimal price, but add as many features as possible. In general this means adding processor and memory power to the printer giving a little screen with menus and facilities that might be found on a PC. Manufactuers avoid elaborate mechanics like motors to drive paper trays or duplex units.

The users intention is to get features for free. The manufacturers intention is to increase people's use of cartridges.

A limit on digital camera and printer sales has potentially been that many people don't have a computer and show no great inclination to get one.

Most home printers can take a variety of memory cards SD, CF, XD and and have a little screen to select and print photos.

Pictbridge is a way to join digital cameras to a printer normally via the USB port without an intervening computer. Bluetooth might be used as well. The camera (or printer) can select and print pictures or areas of a picture and print one of more copies.

Lexmark's P450 printer even boasts a built in CD-burner to put pictures from camera onto CD.

Photography is of great interest to printer makers because it's an area where people really value the result - even if it does cost a lot. A photograph uses a lot of ink and usually benefits from special inkjet paper.

Computer users often have more than one computer - typically  desktop and notebook machines. Computer users typically live in pairs, with overlapping but different needs. Most homes don't have cables between rooms, although they aren't difficult to install. WiFi is the

The problem for the home buyer is that they want one printer to do everything. An analogy is that its trying to use a four wheel drive as a town runabout or a Fiat Panda to tow a horse box.
 
 
 
 

Single black / colour cartridge - simple but expensive

Separate black and colour ink

Four separate cartridges for cyan, magenta, yellow and black

Six or seven seperate cartridges.

Edge to Edge print