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'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...

'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,

asim0v ,

As an IT worker who is regularly subjected to dealing with printers, HP is by far the worst I have to deal with. They are shit from the build quality to the bloated borderline spyware software they push to the awful web interface. If you are considering an HP printer just don’t. It’s a better investment to go buy anything else.

phoenixz ,

HP, yet another example of how to go from the best to the worst in a decade

xia ,

At least they are honest, kinda.

Overshoot2648 ,

This is why I prefer Epson Ecotank printers.

jj4211 ,

I like the concept, but every time I needed to print, I got to do clean print heads like three times before I could print normally.

echodot ,

This really doesn't seem like a very good long-term investment. Over time people are printing less, not more.

If you make it difficult to print they'll make the active effort to move away from your product, which is especially bad given the people are moving away from printing in general anyway.

Madison420 ,

Which is why they have to extract a much as possible from their dimishing customer base that are essentially forced to still use them and this have no real choice.

jj4211 ,

Except other companies are still in the printer game.

Got a new brother color laser for under 200 a few weeks back.

Madison420 ,

Sure. One sets precedent the others follow as always.

Alexstarfire ,

So, they basically want to be a copy shop? Didn't most of the dedicated ones go out of business?

gentooer ,

Why isn't there any competition in the printer space except for Brother? Are printers really that hard to make?

0xD ,

Epson?

gentooer ,

Wow, I've never heard of them.

0xD ,

Got one (WF-2810) at our favorite online retailer monopoly and am pretty happy. The software is ugly and in some places unintuitive but works well, and it allows off-brand inks but "warns" you about them. It also prints relatively slowly (compared to printers of other people) but it really isn't bad and I've had the current cartridges in for the past two years and they still work perfectly after a quick (automatic) refresh. The scanner is ridiculously slow though - I don't mind but I can imagine it annoying some.

Can recommend if you don't print a lot or something!

n0clue ,

I'm pretty sure your scanner is scanning at a ridiculously high DPI or something, had this problem with some Epsons and it could be fixed in the software, there are two softwares too, one is scan smart and one is scan 2

0xD ,

Ohhh, really interesting! I'll check that out, thank you very much!

maynarkh ,

I have an ET-8550 that we bought for printing family photos to scrapbook. It eats ink from bottles instead of cartridges and is happily printing anything I can give it for 2 years now. I print 5-10 coloured pages every 1–2 weeks for a hobby, plus two full photo albums came out of it, and we're still on the first set of ink bottles.

I don't need any wonky software either, it's on the WLAN and Windows just automatically notices it, installs drivers and prints from the OS prompt. Maybe my better half uses their software for the photo printing, IDK.

Overshoot2648 ,

Well their Ecotank printers are pretty popular and in every Walmart.

Overshoot2648 ,

This. Ecotank printers are great and even let you print non-standard inks like photo-resist.

n0clue ,

What are you guys printing?

Overshoot2648 ,

Crafts projects, often papercraft, handouts for presentations, custom stickers, often shipping labels, etc

Fog0555 ,

Canon? I have one and it was supposedly the cheapest per page in the long run.

vimdiesel ,

cannon and brother are both decent printer companies

EnderMB ,

I'm really surprised that someone didn't jump into this space to basically make "the final printer you'll ever want to buy for home/office use".

Sell the printer to make a small profit, support refillable ink, and you'll basically capture 90% of the market. It's not a billion dollar idea, but for a small company it could make millions, even as a Kickstarter type thing between some hardware and device software folks.

bitwolf ,

Apparently it took so much time and effort to make high DPI print nozzles that it's much more attractive for a company to go and make a 3d printer rather than battle it out in a dying market that's remained a stable distribution of HP, Brother and Epson (and partially Canon).

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

The problem is profit.

They're selling you the printers at a pretty substantial loss and are making their money back on the consumables.

In a market where people aren't printing very much this turns out to be a lousy business plan.

School's going full digital and businesses going work from home has pushed everyone to stop using paper for everything.

To compete with the current printer manufacturers you'd need to be able to make a printer for about the same price, which means they too would have to make their money back on consumables but the money just isn't there.

I honestly think this is probably the beginning of the end for HP's line of consumer printers. It could also possibly be the end of their line of commercial multifunction printers. They're going to have to give up and walk away from those sectors. If it turns out you don't need to print for school and you don't need to put for work and you don't need to print passes for events, what are we printing for at this point to sign a document and send it back? The market's drying up and honestly no one new wants in

kerrigan778 ,

Canon, Epson, Xerox?

castlebravo404 ,

Lexmark

FontMasterFlex ,

The moral of the story is don't buy HP anything. Already trying to replace our large format latex printer from HP over this. Fuck that guy.

UncleGrandPa ,

No where in there was anything about what the consumer wants or needs. Just theirs

mightyfoolish ,

Their cheap. HP lowest end printers were always cheaper then the ink. Customers buy the wireless ink with a subscription and think it's a convenience. It's a scam but it's a scam that works.

Basically now that everyone is poor this is how tech companies will address customer needs: low barrier for every and a subscription.

doctorcrimson ,

That CEO doesn't even make top 1000 for worst person, that's just naïve to think he ranks up there with Warlords, Dictators, Winnie the Pooh, and the Sackler Family.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

There's pkenty of room in the ocean to drown them all, and we can reuse the plank.

dumpsterlid ,

And since the CEO said this I will literally never buy an HP product again period

lemmegogo ,

Very happy with my Brother laser printer so far. It just works. Hasn't held my prints hostage for any online ink subscription renewals... yet...

kerrigan778 ,

They also just have famously shoddy build quality, with everything they make.

dangblingus ,

I haven't purchased a new HP product since my Pavilion in 1998. I own an HP mini PC, but that was second hand. I'll never ever ever buy any of their products ever again.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

There are a LOT of such products. I don't touch Sony anything because of the root kit scandal, and their consecutive legal mishaps, and I don't touch ASUS after their lead designers left the company to be taken over by Wall Street, and et cetera. There's becoming fewer honest alternatives to choose from all around. Is this an effect of capitalism, do you think? Could they be correlated somehow?

TrueStoryBob ,

Part of it is an effect of capitalism. What we're seeing across the tech space is exactly what has happened to retail, airlines, automotive, and even utilities... a company is doing well enough, but the investors want more return for basically doing nothing. Then there's a hostile takeover or shareholder revolt, they install a board that is more compliant with value extraction at any cost to customers and/or their own workers, and presto! You've enshitifacated a company!

Shareholders (at least the big ones) don't care about worker safety or customer satisfaction... this is what happened to Sears. The CEO gutted the company and then took a golden parachute away from the dumpster fire he created.

Blackmist ,

Obligatory Brother Laser Printer comment.

BobaFuttbucker ,

I looked into these the other day as my canon inkjet is on its last legs, but it seems any brother laser printer with a comparable featureset now has its own subscription model, and I could be wrong but this is how it seems to work based on my research:

  • You automatically get a trial subscription with the toner you get in these printer models (not sure, I hope it’s opt-in)

  • If you don’t continue the subscription after the trial, the toner cartridges lock and there’s no way to continue using them, even if you renew your subscription later. You have to pay for new toner cartridges.

Rodeo ,

With how popular they've been for years, I'd be honestly surprised if they hadn't enshittified. Reddit got a hard on for them like ten years ago.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

You know how this happens right? Old mid man gets fired, new mid man gets hired- now, how for the new mid man to qualify their own existence? Change something. Improvement! Something to show the boss. But what happens when the product is already solid, when any change made to it worsens its functions? How do you improve a fork? You can't, so instead you start adding shit to it, like better grip, sharper teeth, whatever, and the final product evolves gradually into a monster that is at the same time fork, printer, thermostat, and toilet paper dispenser.

The logical procession and ultimate conclusion of capitalism is this.

Blackmist ,

In fairness, mine is probably even older than that. I think they still sell the basic models. HL-L2305W?

Noedel ,

I bought an Epson ink tank printer because I was so done with cartridges. I'm quite happy with it so far. Always works, never saw any prompts for me to make accounts or install bullcrap software.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

If you own a Brother subscription, you can also get coffee packets, and fresh sock subscription as a service! To your door!

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Obligatory "no step brother, that is not where letter sized papers are supposed to go"

Fog0555 ,

And Canon laser brinter!

Overshoot2648 ,

And Epson Ecotank

Maggoty ,

Well it's the long term objective of everyone else to put HP out of business.

If possible we should take the signs off their buildings and turn them into works of modern art. We'll let IT departments the world over do the project.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

I propose setting fire to barricades of trash and car tires at strategic positions around every major city. I have some other ideas too, PM me.

Maggoty ,

I like the energy but let's refrain from committing felonies?

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

But then there's nothing left!!

Maggoty ,

Sure there is we can help them with a viral marketing campaign. Just imagine an HP sign with a baseball bat stuck in on some random street corner. It's art!

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Eat the beast from the outside? I like how you think.

BurnSquirrel ,

I don't own a printer because the cost to constantly refill cartrages feels like a subscription already. I just go to the UPS store for the 3 times a year I actually need to print something, on a for-realsies printer that someone else maintains. usually costs less than a dollar every time I go.

dangblingus ,

Staples by my house has my printing business. Maybe 20 pages a year?

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

I print whole books from the printer at work.

I work at a Starbucks.

Alexstarfire ,

Why does Starbucks have a printer?

0xD ,

Because there are administrative tasks to be done in the back office.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah they print us all the time in the back office.

Afiefh ,

My long term objective is to never print a document in my life.

Poem_for_your_sprog ,

I just got a brother laser printer.

rab ,

You should return it

Poem_for_your_sprog ,

?

There's no problems with it, I've had it for like 8 years. I ran out of toner last year and replaced the cartridge for like $40.

ThePowerOfGeek ,

Yeah, I don't know where the person you replied to is coming from. I've had nothing but good experiences with Brother laser printers for a long time now. I know it's become cliche to say positive things about them, but man, they are so much better than garbage HP inkjets (or really almost any inkjet).

If all printer companies somehow move into the subscription space then I guess I will be going to somewhere like FedEx-Kinkos about once a month for when I need to print something.

dangblingus ,

It's in the spirit of never printing anything for the rest of your life, like how thread OP meant. The printer seems to be highly recommended, but you'd still be spending money on printing.

rab ,

Oh I interpreted "just got" as you just bought one

I'm only joking though, I just have personal trauma with printers and refuse to own one

Poem_for_your_sprog ,

I should be less lazy when typing on mobile lol

Afiefh ,

If you have to print, that's probably the best option. I'm just happier without any of this.

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