Slashdot Mirror
HP Stops Selling Printers, Starts Selling Prints
An anonymous reader writes "HP has launched a new line of business printers but there's a big catch — you won't be able to buy one. For the first time in history, the company will make customers purchase printing services, rather than the product itself. At its biggest printer launch since the LaserJet in 1984, HP's new business-class Edgeline printers will only be available through a managed services contract. Pricing will be per page, depending on the quality of the printout. Edgeline technology is said to be so ink-efficient that if HP were to sell these printers, they would never match the money they make from consumables (cartridges etc) now."
So, they're not stopping selling printers, they've just released a new line of contracted/leased service printers. Nice work.
It will still be the same third party companies supporting these printers. They will just be "Authorized HP Printer Service Representatives."
That's part of the business model of printers these days. Provide a subsidy on the hardware and make it up in consumables (ink, paper, etc.). Keep in mind, that printer that is cheaper than new ink cartridges only comes with "starter" cartridges which hold less ink than the normal ones. So, it might be cheaper, but you also get less ink (and therefore have to replace more frequently). But, you can probably make up the difference by selling the older printer on eBay or something.
I'd like to see the profit point on printers. How many ink cartridges do I have to buy for them to make up the loss on the hardware? Do companies plan for that payback over time? What is their estimate on how long it takes?
Layne
The only thing I don't own outright are my home (I rent) and my car (until I pay it off). And, as far as those go, ownership is 90% posession, so I at I own 90% percent :)
Capitalism is a system based on the base greed of men (and women). It's not "work hard and see reward"; it's "you want something, you work to get it".
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
In communism the state owns everything. Therefore you own 0%, which is a much lower rate than under coporate capitalism.
In communism, one owner owns everything. We call this a monopoly. Under coporate capitalism, I can choose between several coporations to sell my soul to. Even better, I can choose to sell just parts of my soul to various coporations instead of being force to sell 100% of my soul to one state monopoly.
But printers usually don't come with full ink.
I don't mean to single you out, lots of people say printer cheaper than ink, but ink in new printers is usually 1/4 or 1/2 a store baught cartridge (check product numbers).
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
That's news you can use! Thanks Zonk, and thanks for the oh-so-accurate headline. Come on, the only news here is that HP is so late to the game when almost every other big player has offered both options for years.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
In the /. article that you linked to is a link that states "This is more than 10 times faster than all existing desktop products, and 2 to 3 times faster than the speediest competitor, HP's new Edgeline printer, which is not available in a retail product for ordinary consumers." so I would probably say no.
Xerox has a system that charges businesses per page... It's called their document center, we have one where I work... and you don't own the printers, etc... and you get yelled at by the boss if you print anything in color... Imo, This is really just HP attempting to play catchup. --Ray
http://www.beanleafpress.com
No, HP developed this over 3 years ago and is just now releasing it in quantity. The hardware was finished 2 years ago. The software needed to be polished for a while, considering the target market.
Hey, Mom! Is it beer, yet?
......Actually, this is a business class printer, not a home printer.......
/. readers don't know this?
The idea of leasing expensive things is nothing new. When Xerox made their first copiers, these were available only on a lease-service basis. IBM mainframes were not sold, but leased. Many businesses lease their equipment and buildings. Cost per page isn't the only consideration for many buisnesses. Leasing has tax advantages. Maybe some
So why is this worthy of an article on the main page here? Must be a slow news day.
All theory is gray
HP printers are almost universally supported under Linux.
I don't think any other brand of printer can say the same.
*sigh* back to work...
Inkjet's still have a market - very wide format (larger than 11x17.) Also, they are better for photos than laser, although I prefer my Kodak thermal transfer printer for photos.
Color lasers also tend to to be freakin huge, and noisy. My last inkjet went into the garbage can a couple months ago, when I picked up a Ricoh SP C410dn that works VERY well. At 100 pounds and 19wx25dx19h, it wants a dedicated table. I specifically avoided color lasers that work on the carousel system, where color prints are one fourth the speed of black and white. The quality of color output on modern color lasers is VERY good. I would term it "near photo quality." A good modern 6 color inkjet will still be better for photos however. Just avoid Epson, and their printheads that can't be cleaned without tearing the whole printer apart...
You realize that they are going to leave the printer sitting on your desk right? They are going to lease you the printer, then they provide the maintainence, repairs, ink, paper, etc. At the end of the month they charge you based on the number of pages you used.
I really don't understand the objection to this. Anyone who works with printers these days knows that this is already a standard business model for companies like Xerox, Minolta, etc. who sell laser printer/scanner/copiers and charge per page. the per page cost usually includes toner, maintenance, service, and it's usually very reasonable. I've seen per page contracts as low as .3 cents a page.
HP finally caught up with the bandwagon. and is trying to jump on. This isn't new, this isn't revolutionary, the only thing revolutionary about this printer is the method of printing. which i don't know if it will have a big market. It'd have to be competitive to our colour laser Minolta... in both price and performance/quality.
"Stopping selling" is fine. HP(subject) is stopping(verb) (the act of)selling(object).
Let's go back to the ink efficient days of the DeskJet 400C and fuck these contract based service packages.
You actually can get inkjets that don't cost a fortune in ink to run. The catch? You pay a bit more up-front (but you also get a much better quality of device than the $49 wallyworld inkjet special).
First thing to look for - separate CMYK cartridges, possibly with separately replaceable printheads. That alone will save a fortune over tri/quadcolor cartridges. I don't, however, recommend the ones that take more than four colors - very, very few people need that level of color accuracy, and they tend to cost more yet hold even less ink than the el cheapo tricolor ones.
Second, look for a printer that takes ink cartridge holding significantly more than 7ml. Most printers may take seemingly large ink tanks, but it has no correlation with the actual quantity of ink inside.
As one that meets both criteria that I can personally recommend (no, I don't work for HP or make anything off you buying one of these), the HP Business Inkjet 1200 line (C8154A). It costs $150 up front, but that includes a complete set of inks and printheads. Under normal use, you'll probably never need to replace the printheads; The inks hold 28ml for CMY and 69ml for black (although as usually, the set that comes with it only comes half full, but even those will last a decent time). And the cost the same as the pathetic 3-7ml and tricolor ink cartridges, for 4-9x as much ink. Oh, and it has a built-in duplexer at that price, too (it comes as a separate part, but I've never seen that printer sold without the duplexing unit)
As an aside, with all inkjet printers (especially those with printheads built into the ink cartridges), you can also improve printhead life (for those who seem to have trouble with that - Personally, I do not) by wasting a test page at least once a week (if you haven't used the printer otherwise), to keep them from getting clogged with dried ink. It sounds wasteful, but will cost you less in the long run.
Maybe you should ask why today there is nobody like HP yesterday that offers high quality for an affordable price...?
I assume there'd be competition driving these scams out, but the patent system (i.e. government intervention in the free market) prevents competitors from offering good printers.
There is a ton of money to be made in service contracts. More than there even is in ink. They base it on pages printed rather than ink used because all of the mechanical parts wear equally no matter how much ink coverage there is per page.
Companies like these agreements because they don't have to worry about things like warranties running out or maintaining seperate service agreements with someone to come fix their printers when things inevitably break. It also works out nicely for tax purposes since the money spent is a straight cost rather than a purchase. The company also avoids being stuck with old equipment. Pretty much the same reasons that leasing computer assets is so popular.
The OfficeJet 6310 has SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY MEGABYTES of support software for it. It installs a DOZEN or more drivers on your machine, some of which appear to PORT SCAN the ENTIRE PORT RANGE OVER AND OVER, with others that will peg your CPU at 100%.
Obviously this new line of HP junk has so much crap associated with it that it can't even fit on a DVD, so they have to sell it as a managed service since no ordinary IT user could possibly control this POS.
I can no longer recommend HP to anyone. Buy Epson, folks. HP is done. Put a fork in it.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!