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HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I'd totally go for such a deal for a fridge or washing machine. It would also have the nice side-effect that suddenly the company is interested in making products that actually last decades, if they don't, they have to come and fix or replace it on their dime and the money I give them I would've had to set aside for replacements, anyway.
Not for a printer, though: I use that thing very rarely, doesn't make sense to pay a monthly fee, and if it breaks down I can just go to the post office with an USB stick. Which btw is the perfect place for a public printer because letters is practically the only thing I print and while I'm there I can also buy postage because buying stamps doesn't make sense because they appear to change postage more frequently than I send letters.
I'd expect that if HP goes that way they'll use even more home customers to Brother, people just don't print enough these days to make subscriptions make sense. Also let fucking inkjets fucking die, already.
You can go to Rent-a-center if you want to rent appliances.