HP tries rent-a-printer

Hi, it’s Brody Ford in New York. You already subscribe to online streaming and shopping platforms, why not subscribe to a printer too? But f [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Brody Ford in New York. You already subscribe to online streaming and shopping platforms, why not subscribe to a printer too? But first... Three things you need to know today: • Nvidia expects to win an outsized chunk of [data center spending]( • Microsoft hired two co-founders of[Inflection AI to spur its consumer AI]( • A Colombian fintech raised money from [Goldman and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund]( Old dog, new trick I don’t own a printer. Ink is too expensive, they always seem to be breaking and on the rare occasion I need to print an apartment lease or some piano sheet music, I just use one in the office and look over my shoulder. I’m not alone – [printer sales have steadily declined]( over recent decades as more documents are handled digitally, according to industry tracker IDC. Outside of HP, which still earns $18 billion per year from printers and ink, the topic has little consequence among today’s biggest tech firms. But HP Inc. sees a way [to make printers cool again](: subscriptions. For $6.99 a month, you’ll get a printer sent to your place, good for 20 pages per month with auto-shipped ink and technical support. That allowance is meager for anyone printing out tomes every week, but it’ll be quite sufficient for people who wouldn’t otherwise care to buy a printer outright. Plus, you can always get a higher-tier plan costing as much as $35.99 for 700 pages a month. You too may ask yourself what we need printers for, other than some onerous bureaucracy enforced upon us by a stuck-in-the-past local government. What’s fun about printing? “Actually there's a ton of use cases that come up,” said [Matthew Siegel](bbg://people/profile/20686820)of HP. Scrapbooking and children’s school projects are a couple of the common uses, he added. It's a playbook that worked wonders for digital goods. Whether streaming hubs like Netflix, shopping clubs like Amazon Prime, virtual workout classes from Peloton, or creative tools from Adobe Inc., subscriptions have become the dominant way to buy online products. Leasing consumer electronics hasn’t quite caught on. Sonos Inc.’s soundbars and [iRobot Corp.’s’s cyborg-cleaner Roomba]( can be rented this way, and Apple Inc. has worked on developing an iPhone subscription service. But most people still think of hardware as a money-upfront purchase. HP knows printers aren’t exactly a beloved product category – [one recent ad campaign]( bragged that its devices were “less hated” than the competition. That’s what makes them a great candidate for subscriptions, Siegel said, as the service will ease some common pain points. Chief among public frustrations is the cost and hassle of replacing ink. HP has faced user backlash and lawsuits for forbidding cheaper third-party ink. Once people are subscribed to HP’s printer-and-ink program, we can “jump past that entire conversation,” Siegel said of the ink controversy. (The company makes nearly twice as much money selling ink and other supplies as it does from the printers themselves.) Users will be eligible for a new printer every two years, but Siegel figures most will hang onto their devices longer. That, in combination with recycling help, makes this a more-sustainable method to own a printer, he added. Then again, what if the company ends up with a bunch of barely used three-month-old printers that people returned after ditching the subscription? Siegel doesn’t think that’s likely — more than 90% of pilot users have stuck with the service. HP believes that, no matter what, you’ll probably still need to print documents for the DMV or some other authority every so often. And like that ballooning share of consumer goods, you’ll be willing to pay for it in monthly installments. “It's gonna take a long time before there's no printing happening in the world,” Siegel said.—[Brody Ford](mailto:bford61@bloomberg.net) The big story The Biden administration is warning US states about [cyberattacks against water systems]( throughout the nation, citing ongoing threats from hackers linked to the governments of Iran and China. 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