As do most printer manufacturers, Bi Sheng Printers makes most of its

Question

As do most printer manufacturers, Bi Sheng Printers makes most of its profits on ink cartridges, not the printers themselves. As Bi Sheng Printers cannot sell its ink cartridges as cheaply as other manufacturers can, it plans to modify its printers to only work with a newly designed Bi Sheng ink cartridge, which will cost as much as Bi Sheng Printers’ current ink cartridge does.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports Bi Sheng Printers’ projection that its plan will lead to an increase in its sales of ink cartridges?

A. First-time printer buyers tend to purchase the least expensive printers available.
B. In extensive test marketing, printer users did not find the new Bi Sheng printer any superior to the current Bi Sheng printers.
C. A Bi Sheng executive is studying cost reduction methods, pertaining to manufacturing ink cartridges.
D. A rival manufacturer recently announced similar plans to introduce a printer that would work with only the ink cartridges produced by that manufacturer.
E. The total number of printers sold annually by all manufacturers is expected to double over the next four years.

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Adit_ · Answer

This is quite tricky actually.

POE is the best method to approach this IMO.

Option B --> New ones are no better than old. So wait new is not sold which is accustomed to the NEW cartridge, so both arent getting sold? Thats not what we want right.
ELIMINATED.

Option C --> Somebody studies and what?
ELIMINATED

Option D --> Rival introducing a carbon copy of same method is no proof of work that it must succeed.
ELIMINATED

Option E --> Total number of printers to be sold is "expected" to rise but what printers and why specifically the new cartridges introduced should increase in sale?
ELIMINATED

Option A --> Now this options says that ppl buy the least expensive printers. There is a possibility that the new printers are highly inexpensive. Once they buy it then they have to use the cartridges! So technically sales improves as well.
Keep.

Others eliminated hence  option A  is the answer.

chloreton · Answer

I feel a bit wary for this question.

Nowhere in the stem, its given that BS printers are cheaper than others and it kind of wants us to assume it as cheap. The quality of this question can be improved. I maybe wrong here, someone please clarify. 
If I take option A and say what if BS printers are the most costly one's how would one say it is not costly? There has been no mention about printer cost in general in the stem.

agrasan · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB   MartyMurray

I followed elimination method to find the correct answer and I was left with (D).
My reasoning to eliminate (E) was: (E) talks  total number  of all printers sold but we don't know whether  number of Bi Sheng Printers sold  increases or not because total refers to industry wide (summation of all manufacturers' sales), hence, we can't say that Bi Sheng Printers’ plan will lead to an increase in its sales of ink cartridges.

I wasn't very convinced with (D) but couldn't find (E) as a good one either.

Please help me understand where I went wrong.

Adit_ · Answer

You are right the question can definitely be improved IMO but from what I felt like other option wasn't close compared to option A even but the OA seems to be E maybe I am mistaken, My reasoning to eliminate option E was that just because some bunch of ppl predict something will happen doesnt mean it SHOULD happen and that too that particular printer that is now newly accustomed to only the new cartridges. Way too many assumptions involved whereas for option A only 1 primary assumption would hold it decent which says that the newly designed printers are really cheap.

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

Hi  Adit_  and  agrasan  let me try to help

Well I agree with you both on the quality of options however the question stem says most strongly support the prediction that the plan will work

As do most printer manufacturers, Bi Sheng Printers makes most of its profits on ink cartridges, not the printers themselves. As Bi Sheng Printers cannot sell its ink cartridges as cheaply as other manufacturers can, it plans to modify its printers to only work with a newly designed Bi Sheng ink cartridge, which will cost as much as Bi Sheng Printers’ current ink cartridge does.

So if we will look at the argument it depends on the assumption that the customers are going to buy Bi sheng printers and so to use they have to buy theirs cartridges only. Customers will not get agitated because of this limitation. So any option which increases our belief in the plan to work can be our best of all strengthener

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports Bi Sheng Printers’ projection that its plan will lead to an increase in its sales of ink cartridges?

A. First-time printer buyers tend to purchase the least expensive printers available.- tend to purchase least expensive is fine. But we haven't been given any info about whether they are cheap, what if they are cheap and not of that much quality which customers are expecting. And secondly we have to look for how the sales increase. Even if they are cheap what are the proportion of these first time buyers among the customers. So we can't say.
B. In extensive test marketing, printer users did not find the new Bi Sheng printer any superior to the current Bi Sheng printers.- not at all. Irrelevant
C. A Bi Sheng executive is studying cost reduction methods, pertaining to manufacturing ink cartridges. Again irrelevant
D. A rival manufacturer recently announced similar plans to introduce a printer that would work with only the ink cartridges produced by that manufacturer. How does this can be a strengthener if competitor is planning something similar it is going to affect Bi Sheng if rivals printer is good, or cheap or better customer support. This can be our weakner
E. The total number of printers sold annually by all manufacturers is expected to double over the next four years.- if all manufacturers printer sale expected to increase that means Bi Sheng sale is also expected to increase and if printer sales increase then those customers has to buy there's cartridges only to use the printer. Hence yes the plan will work.

Hope this helps

MartyMurray · Answer

(D) doesn't work because the fact that one other manufacturer plans to do the same thing doesn't clearly indicate one way or the other whether Bi Sheng's plan will work.

(E) also isn't a very good answer because the fact that printer sales overall will increase does not mean that Bi Sheng's plan itself will lead to a increase in sales of ink cartridges. The company may sell more cartridges, but it may not do so as a result of implementing the plan.

I would probably just write this question off as not working.

Perhaps, if you want some practice picking an answer on the basis of what the question writer was probably thinking even though the question doesn't work, you could decide that the question writer would go with (E), which at least indicates that sales of cartridges will likely increase, even if not because of the plan.

Adit_ · Answer

Similar logic applied to A can also be applied to E IMO. Just like you pointed that we aren't given info what is cheap and what is not, we also arent given info that the sales of Bi Sheng's printers will ALSO increase.
Option E says "total number of printers" that are sold by all manufacturers increase and not each. I dont know if Bi Sheng's sales is going to double. I can have x+3x+2x=6x which doubles the sales and still keeps Bi Sheng's sales as it is.

Adit_ · Answer

IMO option A is a closer option. Again we aren't sure of what is cheap and what isn't but it could give us a reason to believe that is a possible motive of the company? Sell printers cheap, and now that people buy it they are forced to buy only those certain ink cartridges and the sales go up naturally.

KarishmaB · Answer

(D) doesn't work at all. (E) has a chance, though still not a good option.

Bi's ink is more expensive (so likely sells less. People buy other inks). So to increase their ink sales, they are planning to make their printers work with only their own ink. 
Aim: Increase sales of Bi's ink.

One issue that may come up is that people may not buy Bi's printers then - because its ink will be more expensive. 
Then what will help say that Bi's ink will sell more?

D. A rival manufacturer recently announced similar plans to introduce a printer that would work with only the ink cartridges produced by that manufacturer.

Irrelevant. The rival's ink may be cheaper. People may just buy their printers and ink. How does this imply that Bi's ink will sell more?

E. The total number of printers sold annually by all manufacturers is expected to double over the next four years.

Do they mean "total of all printers sold in the industry" or "all manufacturers will double their number of printers sold"?
The "total" number of printers makes me think they are talking industry-wide. Then will Bi's printers also increase, we can't say. After all, if their printers work on only their own ink which is more expensive, people may not buy their printers. 
So not a good option. Ambiguous at best.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

E is the best choice.  
   
  Video explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H60pUsTifpE

egmat · Answer

Hi Adit_,

Your reasoning about the lock-in mechanism is actually spot-on — sell printers, then force people to buy your cartridges. That logic is solid. But here's the exact moment your reasoning goes off track with A:

Choice A says:  'First-time printer buyers tend to purchase the least expensive printers available.'

The stimulus never tells us that Bi Sheng printers are the least expensive. You're assuming that. In fact, the stimulus tells us Bi Sheng can't sell its cartridges as cheaply as competitors — so there's no reason to believe Bi Sheng is the price leader on printers either. If Bi Sheng printers are NOT the cheapest, then A actually HURTS Bi Sheng, because first-time buyers would flock to a competitor's cheaper printer instead.

So A only works IF you add an assumption the passage doesn't support.  That makes it unreliable as a strengthener.

Now compare with E:  'The total number of printers sold annually by all manufacturers is expected to double over the next  four  years.'

If the entire market doubles, Bi Sheng will sell more printers even if its market share stays exactly the same.  And since every new Bi Sheng printer is locked into using only Bi Sheng cartridges, more printers sold = more cartridge sales. No extra assumptions needed.

Key takeaway:  When evaluating Strengthen answers, always check whether the answer choice requires you to add an assumption that the stimulus doesn't provide. If it does, it's not a reliable strengthener. E works independently of any pricing assumptions — it guarantees a bigger pie for everyone, including Bi Sheng.

Answer: E

Adit_ · Answer

I mentioned that point as well in my other response. The fact that "total number of printers" sold by all manufacturers doubling could also mean that Bi Sheng remains the same but the other manufacturers have maybe increased 3x or 4x eventually leading to a 2x increase of the total number of printers. There was no mention of "each" manufacturer doubling was my point. Hence I felt option E is not valid.
Looking forward to your response!

As do most printer manufacturers, Bi Sheng Printers makes most of its

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As do most printer manufacturers, Bi Sheng Printers makes most of its

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