China: The source for low cost, high quality ink jet supplies

Many inkjet ink and ink jet media technologies have become mature. Both the technologies and the raw materials to produce these products have become available from numerous sources worldwide. As a result first world, third party suppliers have come to market with lower cost, satisfactory alternatives to those supplies provided initially only by the printer manufacturer. Now, as a result of this state of development, the next step in the maturation of these products has begun. The migration from high tech, first world manufacturing to the developing world is underway. This paper describes the state of this migration with some specific examples of products that have undergone this movement and the resulting effect in the marketplace. A prediction of future trends will be presented as well. A new dynamic will be described where the maturation process is being short-circuited by taking new technologies directly from the high tech, first world to the developing world resulting in lower cost, high performance products for this marketplace much sooner. This is resulting in significant benefits for the industry and the consumer.