‘Our long-term objective is to make printing a subscription’ says HP CEO gunning for 2024’s Worst Person of the Year award | Not satisfied with merely bricking printers, HP now wants to own them al…::It was only the other day we reported how HP has been slapped with a lawsuit in response to measures that disable its printers when fitted with a third-party ink cartridge. Now the company’s CEO,
Imagine how reliable printers will finally be. And how long the ink will last before a refill now! /s.
I won’t be buying another HP printer, ever.
Me too, so nothing in my life has changed.
I was just considering an HP printer as next. Sure it will be another brand who respect customer choice.
Why would anyone buy such a printer? You could just go to a print shop at that point. Though honestly that’s already what I do so maybe it’s for the hikikomori or something. I don’t know why the home printer still exists in this day and age.
I don’t know why the home printer still exists in this day and age.
Legal shit.
And financial shit, and tickets, and coupons, and recipes, and templates, and manuals, and …
For when I need to run off a new character sheet right now.
“don’t know why the home printer still exists in this day and age”
Really? You are having a tough time imagining why people may want to print things on paper in their homes? I guess you are not alone because the printzone has a page dedicated to education on this topic.
Please visit the printzone https://www.printzone.com.au/help-centre/7-reasons-why-we-still-need-printers/
Most of those reasons are why a print company is needed, there’s very little about why I need a printer at home.
It’s been close to 5 years since I needed to print something at work. At home, more like 20 years.
I haven’t ironed my clothes in 25 years but with the power of imagination I can manage to grasp why other people might want to have an iron in their home.
Oh absolutely. There definitely are valid use cases for printers just like there are valid ways to use an ice pick. If you need to use huge blocks of ice for something, you really want to own your very own ice pick. Other people might not need one as much as you do.
I don’t need one
If I’m expected to pay a subscription that means every single aspect of the experience has to be outsourced to HP. And I’m including set up, cleaning and maintenance, consumables, and sending a man out to clear my paper jams for me, too. That’s how it works at the print shop – I put in money, they hand me prints completed to my specifications. Whatever happens in between those two events is not my problem.
But of course that won’t be the case, so they can fuck off.
Well, crafts is why I just bought my first 2 inkjets in probably 20 years. Epson Ecotanks - actually make inkjet reasonable. I use it to do prints for heat transfer and for dye sublimation.
Then there’s the patterns for people who crochet or knit.
And occasionally forms - like passport renewal forms you have to mail in still for some reason, and you live a 30 minute drive from a printshop so having a B&W laser helps.
That said, I haven’t recommended an HP since the 1990s. There’s nothing I’m aware of they do better than brother in laser or epson in inkjet for home use (or Xerox in the business market).
My immediate thought. And no worries about ink drying up and whatever else might break suddenly. Just pay a shop if you want printing as a service.
Because I need to print at home, that’s why it exists.
What an ignorant take. There are people who’s life functions differently than yours.
I just replaced my 1996 Lexmark laser. I don’t recall ever replacing the toner, perhaps once. It just worked, for 27 years, and I can probably fix it.
I now have a newer wifi b/w laser. Why should I go somewhere to print something? It would take a minimum of 30 minutes to do so, and cost $2-$3. My time is worth more than wasting it on getting something printed.
And wtf is hikki-whatever?
If HP’s competitors are listening to his utterances, they should be all over this with ads saying “no subscriptions or other nonsense in our printers, and never will be”. They could grab much more of the market.
The sad thing is that I bet all the competitors have a room full of suits and ties who are hoping this works out for HP so they too can do it. I can almost guarantee this will turn into a “follow the leader” game.
Greedy rent-seeking garbage humans would make breathing a subscription if they could. And the sad and scary part is that for some reason there are people ready and willing to pay for the Premium Oxygen Subscription Plus with unlimited breaths per day and the Gold Blinking Packaage added for free for the first month ($99.95 after that)…
Just so long as they don’t have to think about it, subscriptions are just fine with such people. 🤦♂️
I haven’t bought an HP printer in at least 25 years. They used to repeatedly just print jibberish on a few lines and move on to the next page and wouldn’t stop until I killed the print job. Canon laser printers are great and you dont need to worry about magenta drying up and preventing you from printing in black and white.
I actually wish harm to this parasite.
So are there instructions out there to build your own printer with, say, a Raspberry Pi or a suitable equivalent?
With each new HP news article I grow more pleased with last year’s decision to ditch HP once and for all and get a Brother.
The Brother just works. Even surprises me in some scenarios where I anticipate lack of support and it comes through anyway. Great printer!
Please proceed, governor.
Paperless offices and WFH eating their lunch
I mean I get that they are established but what exactly is keeping their customers coming back to them? They make printers, there is no magic sauce, I’m sure they’re nice printers, but there are other companies, or someone could start a new printer company. I just can’t fathom why they think they can get away with treating their customers this way and not expect to lose them. Unless there is something I’m missing?
Most people shouldn’t buy a home printer at all anymore. Unless you’re a crafter or work in a field that still uses lots of paper (i.e. law) they’re not worth it.
It’s a rapidly shrinking market and HP knows there’s no saving it so I guess they’re following the cable company playbook.
Squeeze your remaining customers as hard as possible before the music stops
Reminder:
Your local library can print documents for you for an insignificant sum. So can every Office Supply store - though they’re worse in every way. Also so can your local shipping supply store (UPS, etc…)
Got it. Not to buy hp printer.
Nowadays, the only thing I find myself printing occasionally are return labels for Amazon RMA on my trusty old Samsung CLP laser printer (which sometime has a mind of its own and starts adding a single grayish streak on the second page onward at random location).
I have a second monochrome laser printer from Brother I purchased 2-3 years ago for a bargain lightning price of $70 thinking of replacing my old “dying” printer, however I exclusively use it to do occasional photocopies and I already have a bunch of TN660 toner for it.
Just waiting for the Samsung to run its course and finally die but it lives on challenging any thoughts I may have to send it to the eco-centre (recycling center in Québec). It is at least maybe 20 years old and the darn thing is stubbornly holding on 😆. At this point I feel like it may last another 20 years. It has indeed been well worth the $300 at the time.
Early on, I experienced so many issues with Lexmark, Epson and HP that I crossed off the companies forever.
Fortunately, I think I lucked out on my current 2 printers that will, hopefully, last me a few more decades.
I used to only recommend that any Brother printer would be better to friends and family, but I came accross information that newer brother printers started to have a chip in their ink/toner cartridges. I am unaware if it is for some nefarious purpose. Hopefully, they understand alienating customers will quickly dissolve all the good will they have accumulated.
