Digital Home Thoughts: CES 2011: Memjet's One Page Per Second Printing Technology

When people ask me what I saw that was most interesting to me at CES, I have two answers for them: Seagate's Data Lunchbox hard drive prototype, and the subject of the above video: Memjet's crazy-fast printing technology. Memjet has a core technology that they're licensing to printer OEMs around the world; what this means is that you won't see a Memjet-branded printer, but you might see a Lexmark or HP printer with a "Powered by Memjet" logo on it. It's been a long time since there was much of anything interesting in the printing world, so I'm personally pretty jazzed about this. I have an Epson R1800 that has served me well for years, but it's not a terribly fast printer when you're cranking out 50 or so 4x6" prints for family members. If I could have technology like this implemented in a printer, I'd be all over it.

Since it's ink-based technology, the question of ink cost always comes up. Memjet says their system can reduce the cost of ink up to 50%, but that's of course completely dependant on the printer OEM to pass/not pass the savings on to customers. They might look at it as an extra slice of profit pie, or they might look at it as a way to gain a massive competitive advantage in the market. Memjet was tight-lipped about exactly who their partners are in the consumer space, but 2011 will likely be the year we see a few Memjet-powered printers make their way onto the market. I'm looking forward to it!