Well, I, for one, will continue reducing anything that I print. Given my aversion to subscriptions, just reading this frustrates me.
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Click. Click. Click.
I think this kind of service works for Big Business who print a lot daily or individuals who print a lot daily.
Will you believe if I told you, I have never owned a printer.
I believe it. 
My wife tends to print a good bit at home. I print very little at work and zero at home. I’m 99% paperless. But, I get frustrated reading about more efforts to add subscriptions because I feel nearly everyone is trying to squeeze every last nickel and penny from us as possible. Perhaps this will become like the American post office. As they keep raising postal rates, more and more people abandon sending anything through the Postal Service. Maybe there is a way to significantly reduce the amount of printing done, even in a business enterprise. It just takes a little creativity and changing habits. Most of the time, things really do not need to be printed, particularly when we all have laptops, iPads, or Microsoft Surface Pro devices.
Straight up cash grab and a big (@Bmosbacker hide your eyes!) f-you to their customers. Highly unlikely I consider any HP products in the future.
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Less and less customers are buying printers these days, they’re trying to maintain income, but shooting themselves in the foot. Competitors will take their market share.
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I have a Brother printer that I’ve owned for six years or so, but I rarely use it. I print a copy of my tax return and a few other pages each year.
It’s worked this way for years (decades?) for businesses. I have worked in finance for large corporations and the federal government and have seen the contacts/bills, all contracts for printing/copying are monthly on a per sheet/copy basis. They don’t buy the printers, they just pay to use them. The bright side is when something breaks, the printer company is out quickly to fix it. Which of course won’t work on the home side.
I would be a lot angrier about this if HP didn’t have competitors that make great printers without the games. Owned Brother printers for well over a decade now. They come in handy sometimes, and with a laser you don’t have to worry about your ink drying up.
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We do a lot with our home printer, but we are in the middle of raising kids. Anything we print and don’t hand in at school has a second life as coloring sheets, paper craft, rolled kindling sticks, and so on. We’re on our second Brother duplex laser and that’s only because a dog somehow peed on the first one.
dog somehow peed on the first one.
That must be one tall dog! Certainly bigger than ours 
PS after posting that I realized she is due for a grooming. 
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Same! We have always had a “clean on one side” drawer and have continued it for the grands.
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Nice looking dog! Cheaper to groom too!!
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I didn’t get my dog for her looks. I got her for protection.
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I’ve lost respect for HP printers compared to Canon printers. We have one of each color inkjets, both about the same vintage (a few years old). Inevitably, we leave each for extended periods of time not printing (vacation home versus regular home). I have never had issues with the Canon ink drying up. I have constant issues with the HP ink drying up. The HP slot for photo paper is also designed to take only HP photo paper, which is slightly smaller than other vendors.
I will not be purchasing an HP printer in the future. This news makes the decision even easier.
–
JJW
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I can feel a “Pets of MPU” thread coming on. I love seeing seeing pictures of member’s pets (especially dogs - sorry)
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It wasn’t straightforward even in the corporate world. I had a few years in my job where I would spend far too many hours reading a vast amount of small print, generating gigantic and complicated spreadsheets and meeting with reps before I could recommend a shortlist and we could make a contract so we could print and copy.
It all came down to a wager: that we’d get our print estimates wrong and end up paying the supplier far more than the cost of the machines, toner and paper or that we’d get it right and they’d deliver our printing reliably for cost. A lot depended on local knowledge - was there an office in the town with a set of energetic and competent technicians who’d arrive within an hour or two if something broke?
Printing as a subscription never, ever made sense for the small scale, though that’s basically what all the manufacturers do when they sell inkjet printers for below cost and ink for way more than cost.
We’ve got two Brother laser all-in-ones (but for fax) here. Since the pandemic they have doubled in price, but really inexpensive at the time. Of course can’t print photos anymore. I try to be “paperless” but there always seems to be something that needs to be printed.
My entire working career, every company leased their printers and paid per copy. Owning a printer is basically the outlier.