HP Printers: it's a scam

The Register¹ tells us HP’s CEO spells it out: You’re a ‘bad investment’ if you don’t buy HP supplies:

“Every time a customer buys a printer, it’s an investment for us. We are investing in that customer, and if that customer doesn’t print enough or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s a bad investment.”

Yup. It’s a complete racket.

In recent years HP have forced people to connect their printer to the internet so that they could push update that would disable the printer if they didn’t use “genuine” ink, sometime even breaking. They have been abusing the DMCA to use copyright to prevent third-party supplies. Ink prices have skyrocketted in the mean time since it’s a monopoly.

“Our objective is to make printing as easy as possible, and our long-term objective is to make printing a subscription.”

HP use other examples to defend themselves, including the claim that the chip on the ink cartridges can spread malware: this is more a testament to their poor design and implementation than anything else. But why do they need these chips? To support the racket.

It’s the razor blade business model pushed to its extremes.

NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM HP.