‘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,
Obligatory Brother Laser Printer comment.
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.
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.
In fairness, mine is probably even older than that. I think they still sell the basic models. HL-L2305W?
And Canon laser brinter!
And Epson Ecotank