Question

In March 2007, Computers Ltd. made a bundled offer of its laptops together with Deskjet printers to boost sales, though both products were also sold individually. What is the price of the printer, if bought separately? Decide whether the information given in the two statements below is enough to answer the question.

Statement (1): The bundled offer price was Rs 42,600.
Statement (2): The laptop, without the bundle offer, was priced at Rs 39,400.

• A. Any one of the two statements (1) or (2) is enough to answer the question.
• B. Each of the statements (1) or (2), taken alone, is enough to answer the question.
• C. Both statements, taken together, are enough to answer the question, but neither one alone is enough.
• D. Both statements together are not enough to answer the question.

Hint:

A bundle price is rarely just the sum of the individual prices; without knowing the discount, the two statements cannot isolate the printer's price.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Count what is actually unknown.
There are two separate prices we might need, the laptop's price $L$ and the printer's price $Pr$, plus a third hidden unknown: how much of a discount the bundle offer carries, call it $d$. A "bundled offer to boost sales" is worded exactly like a promotional discount, so $d$ cannot be assumed to be zero just because the question is silent about it.

Step 2: See what each statement supplies.
Statement (1) supplies one number, the bundle price (42,600). Statement (2) supplies a second number, the laptop's standalone price (39,400). Together that is only 2 known numbers for 3 unknowns ($L$, $Pr$, $d$), and $L$ becomes known from Statement (2), leaving 1 equation $42{,}600 = 39{,}400+Pr-d$ for the 2 remaining unknowns $Pr$ and $d$.

Step 3: Show two different discount values give two different printer prices.
If $d=0$ (no discount at all), $Pr = 42{,}600-39{,}400 = 3{,}200$. But if $d=500$ (a modest promotional discount), $Pr = 3{,}200+500=3{,}700$. Both are consistent with the two statements, yet they give different printer prices. Since more than one value of $Pr$ fits the given data, the printer's exact price cannot be pinned down.

Step 4: Final Answer.
Because the size of the bundle discount is never given, neither statement alone, nor both together, can fix a single value for the printer's price.
\[ \boxed{\text{Both statements together are insufficient}} \]