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HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

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Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#81

Post by rowanG077 »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

I don't think it's that simple. I would never have expected micro transactions to take of. For the same reason that you mention. People really can't be that stupid right? Paying multiple times for a product and being willingly milked for their money? And yet this practice is totally normal now. Look at the horse armor memes from the elder scroll oblivion days.

What this says to me more then anything that it makes total sense for companies to squeeze their consumers to an extreme degree. They might just accept it.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#82

Post by Pesthuf »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

Customers have been getting used to subscription only for many other things that definitely shouldn't be services. Why not try? If you're soulless and generating value for the shareholders is your only purpose in life, doing this makes sense.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#83

Post by jbstack »

phantom784 wrote: post #71
jbstack wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite likely that people use their printers far less, but for many people not having any access to a printer at all is unrealistic and/or undesirable. There are still plenty of example use cases which aren't covered by the existence of QR codes and phone scanning. Documents which need ink signatures. Boarding pass backups so you don't hit disaster when you are running late for the flight and your battery…

For me it's infrequent enough that I'll just go the the library if I need to print.

That's a reasonable proposition, but I think it comes down to your individual circumstances, frequency of need, and tolerance of inconvenience.

For people who have an office or home where a printer won't take up valuable space or look out of place, use it semi-frequently (let's say a few times per week or month), and might have to deal with the occasional urgent case, owning a $100 printer is a small price to pay to avoid having to spend an hour visiting the library (depending on distance of course) every time you need to perform 30 seconds worth of printing.

For a bit more money, you can get a multi-function printer with a built in duplex scanner and document feeder, which actually helps with running a paper-free environment. I have one of those sitting on my desk. Every piece of mail that arrives goes first into the scanner and then into the recycling bin, and avoiding trips to the library for printing is an added bonus.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#84

Post by cubefox »

denvrede wrote: post #58
cubefox wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's significantly more than that.

No it's not. https://www.dm.de/services/services-im-markt/fotoservice/cop...

That's a supermarket though where they hope you buy other stuff. Though already colored pages cost 55 cents. In dedicated print shops it usually will be significantly more expensive.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#85

Post by account42 »

lukan wrote: post #73
Havoc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no one is charge saw this coming They just don’t care. Corporate tactics 101 - push limits until someone screams bloody murder. It’s the big corporate equivalent of move fast and Break things that is so beloved of SV

Not just corporate tactics. "We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back. " https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Juncker It is just rare, that a EU president says stuff like this loud in the open. Otherwise it is politics 101.

And that Mr. Junker dares to say this in the open shows the root of the issue - politicians are no longer afraid of their constituents just as corporations are no longer afraid of their customers. They know that even if they do something almost universally disliked at worst they have to back off a bit and lay low for a while. Real consequences are practically unheard of.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#86

Post by jbstack »

83457 wrote: post #60
nehal3m wrote: post #5

I'm probably super biased because I work in a relatively modern office that produces relatively modern tech, but we barely ever use paper for anything anymore. The same goes for my home office use; I moved a few months ago and left my printer behind. With the advent of QR code tickets and parcel barcodes and iOS's Continuity scanning features I just don't see the point of having a space-, paper- and toner-eating mons…

Most people need to print so infrequently that they should just print to library or print service like fedex. My library's printing is a third the cost of local printing services. Both have simple ways to send print jobs to a location. Really convenient.

One person's convenient is another person's inconvenient. For me, a trip to the library means dealing with awkward opening hours and a 35 minute round trip on foot, or 10 minutes by car with a fight for a parking space plus a parking charge and petrol. Printing at home means pressing a button and waiting 30 seconds. I can even do it on a Sunday or at 8am or 7pm if I want to. There's no comparison.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#87

Post by michaelt »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer?

Believe it or not, a lot of large organisations opt into systems like this. A cloud-based print queue lets you tie printing to your single-sign-on system, bill each print to the right department, and simplify sending the print to the right printer.

If you can have a third party deal with all the routine maintenance and toner orders and whatnot, so you just get billed $0.10 per page with everything taken care of, that's one less thing to worry about.

With that said, I can well believe this specific HP product would be a deceptively marketed, overpriced, locked down piece of shit. Inkjet printers have been that way for decades, after all.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#88

Post by pantalaimon »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

I wonder why nobody yet had the idea to offer an ad-based alternative to the paid subscription.

Just print a few pages of ads before every print job.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#89

Post by heliodor »

impendia wrote: post #65
mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. I remember when US airlines started charging for checked baggage. Many more people started carrying on their bags, resulting in slower boarding and deplaning, and therefore problems for the airlines. I read an interview with an executive at one of the airlines, saying that he didn't see this coming and was taken totally by surprise. I am bewil…

It could just mean he never tried to analyze it.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#90

Post by ptspts »

generationP wrote: post #53
ogou wrote: post #9

I found one these all-in-one units out on sidewalk and thought I had scored a cool freebie. It was nearly new. Now I know why they threw it away. Total garbage and bricked without that HP+ subscription. Can't use the scanner because the ink is too low. The worst part is that I couldn't even reset the printer to use a new subscription! It was tied to the previous owner at a hardware level and support said I had to con…

Windows has a scan app ( ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9wzdncrfj3pv ) that can commandeer a scanner connected via USB even if the scanner's own software doesn't let you. Not sure it works with every model, and it's not very rich in features, but I've successfully thrown it at two scanners that I couldn't get any use of otherwise.

The generic Linux scan app wasn't able to scan until I replaced the ink in a Canon device.
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