[sf-lug] Fwd: Looking for a cheap printer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Todd Hawley (celticdm at gmail.com):

> Hasn't the rule of thumb for all printers (and this may have come up
> already in this thread)
> that most printers are cheap to buy but the cartridges will generally be
> really expensive? 

Hmm, not exactly   Michael made the point that inkjets are cheap to
acquire, but expensive in supplies, plus environment-hostile.  Decent
laser printers cost more up-front than commodity inkjet, but will repay
you within a couple of years (less time or more depending on amount of
printing) in savings on supplies.

He also made the broader point that cost of printer acquisition and cost
of printer expenses are simply different questions -- implying that a
smart buyer thinks about both.

Ref.:  http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2021q2/015262.html

> A friend of mine had an HP printer that he had been able to buy third
> party cartridges for until HP sent out an update that made it
> impossible for any third party cartridges to work on it. He has now
> dumped that printer.

I'm willing to bet good money that it was an inkjet -- and that is where
those sorts of manipulations of the customer base are overwhelmingly
found.  And that fact itself highlights the fundamental truth of the
inkjet printer market:  The reason the manufacturers work so hard,
connive so much, in several notorious cases even deploying DMCA against
manufacturers of competing supplies, in order to control customers and
prevent them from enjoying a level playing field, is that inkjet
supplies are hugely profitable, whereas inkjet printers are not.