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I have a weird confession to make. I love my printer. I love it with the wild-eyed fervour of a convert who wants everyone to know about it. (Yes, I am good fun at dinner parties, why do you ask?) I’m not the only one. My machine — a very boring black-and-white Brother laser printer — has a devoted following. It’s not because it does anything special. It’s because it just . . . works.
This phenomenon — of people who are pathetically grateful in the year 2025 to have found a product which does what it’s meant to do — tells an interesting story about capitalism and consumer psychology at a time of technological change.
I only love my printer because I have had so many terrible ones in the past: ink priced like champagne; clogged nozzles; paper jams; connection problems. In the US, people hate printers so much that you can pay to go into a “rage room” and smash them up. Many have given up on the idea they can ever be anything but awful. “Stop expecting printers to ‘just work’,” urged a bleak New York Times article in 2016. “Most of you are going to hate something about any printer that you buy, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Even the printer-makers know the score. In 2023, HP produced an advert of an infuriated man kicking a printer off the table, with the tag line “Made to be less hated.”
At the root of the discontent is the industry’s “razor and blades” business model, which involves selling ink-jet printers very cheaply, then making the profit from high-margin ink cartridges. Cheap hardware is more likely to be flimsy and unreliable, which enrages customers. The pricey ink cartridges also enrage customers, especially when the printer companies try to stop them from using cheaper ink from other brands instead.
But if consumers see the companies as the bad guys in this story, then the companies probably see consumers who don’t want to buy their ink in much the same way. As HP chief executive Enrique Lores put it in an interview with CNBC last year: “We lose money on the hardware, we make money on supplies . . . Every time a customer buys a printer, it’s an investment for us, we’re investing in that customer, and if this customer doesn’t print enough or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s a bad investment.”
Is there any escape from this doom loop of mutual disappointment? The odd thing is, this isn’t a market which lacks options. Laser printers like mine (other models and brands are available) use toner rather than ink, which is less troublesome and doesn’t dry out if you only use it infrequently. They are a bit more expensive upfront and the toner looks pricey on paper, but it lasts a long time (I have just had to replace my first cartridge after five years.) It doesn’t print in colour but when I want photos, I just order them online. Other people speak highly of ink tank printers which cost a lot to buy, but almost nothing to run.
Even in a world of plentiful information online, it’s an interesting wrinkle of capitalism that so many people continue to buy printers they hate. Some people can’t afford to spend more upfront, of course. For others, the overload of information and choice might be part of the problem. Psychological studies suggest that when people are faced with difficult decisions, they tend to plump for the default. Add to that the ingrained pessimism which whispers “all printers are rubbish anyway so I may as well go for the cheapest”.
One way to put an end to this sorry tale would be for people to stop having printers altogether. This is indeed the way things are going, thanks to a world in which you can do more and more via screens, from signing a contract to boarding a flight. In its 2024 annual report, HP noted “continuing secular challenges related to, among other things, decreased demand for printing products and solutions as a result of increased digitisation and hybrid work.”
But as the home printer market declines, the rage-inducing dynamics might well intensify. Customers who don’t think they’re going to need to use a printer very often will be more tempted to go for the cheapest ink-jet option. Their infrequent use of the ink-jet will mean the nozzles are more likely to clog. Meanwhile, the fact these customers aren’t printing much with their below-cost machines means the companies might feel the need to lock them ever-more-aggressively into their ink, and push new products like subscriptions, which people also complain about.
With apologies to Antonio Gramsci, the old world is dying, and the new world is not yet born. One day, we won’t need home printers at all. In the meantime, just buy a black-and-white laser and thank me later.
sarah.oconnor@ft.com
