I am sure there has been a lot of thought, from the marketing department put into this. Sell the printer cheap, or even give it away, and we will make the profit from the ink. The cost of every printer I have ever owned, has been less, and sometimes a lot less, than what I have spent in ink. Even my Tektronix color laser printer that I paid $1900 for has now been eclipsed by the cost of the toner.