The Clone Wars: OEMs Bane

Yesterday I read an article by Tony Lee in which he relays quotes from several OEMs who are talking about Chinese clones as if they are some kind of apocalyptic event for the toner recycling industry.

From the post:

"Xerox, who is by far the largest supplier of printer supplies to the managed print channel, including printers that are not their own brand, also warned “clone cartridges appear to be less costly, but they aren’t. Image quality is low, failure rates are high, damage to the printer is common and these are not even the most serious issues.” Xerox uses Aftermarket supplies to fill its managed print channel orders for other OEM devices. They purchase these from companies like the Clover Imaging Group, the largest remanufacturer of cartridges in the world."

I find this above statement laughable as it is the same old arguments that have been made by OEMs since the inception of the toner recycling industry which ultimately took profits away from OEMs and resulted in the same kinds of ... err, I mean, " educational articles" talking about the problems with remanufactured toners.

It was wrong then, and I suspect it is wrong now.

From the same post:

"Today, many new-built manufacturers in China have developed their own patents, and the new-built cartridges are not necessarily “clones It is estimated that there are about 5,000 Aftermarket patents now held by Chinese companies that have sought their own workaround solutions for printer cartridges. Some manufacturers have met with border authorities in the US to demonstrate why the products do not infringe and have been allowed to enter.

A number of industry analysts have told RT Media Cerkleski’s Clover holds very powerful business relationships with the OEMs in order to supply Aftermarket products they need to their MPS contracts. Clover does not make any new-built cartridges. “Non-infringing, new-built products coming from China could undermine the strong business relationship between Clover and the OEMs in the future,” one person noted. “If the cheaper, new-built cartridges prove to provide consistent yield and quality, and are in fact non-infringing, then they could, potentially, change the aftermarket landscape,” another person suggested."

I think it is pretty clear that the re-manufacturers are not the ones who should be scared, but the OEMs. This is not about corporate powers concern for the environment, it is about their concerns of additional profit losses in the face of a new evolution in the industry that once again threatens their stranglehold on a market that is being slowly eroded away by actual green companies and smaller independent VARs and re-manufactures who can turn a decent core into a quality .

This is what I had to say regarding the content of the post mentioned above and until I see these cloned cores proven to be crap, I stand behind the statement:

"I am calling shenanigans. You can only green-wash BS for so long before it stays brown... Unless the clones cannot be re-manufactured, then the OEMs are the ONLY people who have something to worry about. They have been losing money since the inception of the re-manufacturing industry and regardless of what they say to the media, they hate. it.

At my company, the only original component on one of our toners is the core. EVERYTHING else is replaced with brand new spec parts. So unless the cores from these clones are absolute crap, then I for one welcome them to the market. It's funny, large corporations like to play the cutthroat cliche until the mouse becomes the cat...

If the OEMs are scared, then I am amused. Business, like nature, is chaotic and evolution occurs, can't deal with the heat? Then get out of the kitchen.

Drops mic. Grabs popcorn."