It's high cost has very little to do with the cost of making the ink. It's more to do with what they CAN charge you for it.
The printer industry has adopted the same business model as the razor industry or how Kodak used to work (back in the old film days). In short, printer ink is so expensive in order for printers to be cheap. In other words, give away the razor or the camera so people will buy the blades or the film - again and again and again.
The goal is to trap a customer into a format and once that customer has already sunk in some money and effort into getting that format, you can charge a lot for the accessories they need to go with it.
It sucks. I bought a couple shares of HP stock several years ago and tell myself that I'm reinvesting in my own company.... LOL.
