Competitors’ ink cartridges not welcome on HP printers 🖨️

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If you own a printer, you probably know that ink cartridges are expensive. The solution favored by most consumers is to buy ink cartridges that are compatible with their printers, but not from the manufacturer. And HP isn’t happy about that.

HP blocks printers that use competing cartridges🛑

If you have an HP printer and it doesn’t work when you use non-HP cartridges, it’s not a bug. In fact, the manufacturer simply blocks its printers if the ink cartridges used do not come from its catalog. The information was confirmed by HP’s own CEO, Enrique Lores.

It’s « to protect our IP (Intellectual Property) ». « There is a lot of IP we build in the ink, in printers themselves, and what we’re doing is when we identify cartridges that are violating our ip, we stop the printer from work » he added

While the first reason given is to protect HP’s intellectual property, it’s not the only one. In his interview (which you can find below), Enrique Lores explains that competing ink cartridges can contain viruses that can infect your printer, and then your network. While this is theoretically possible, to date no exploitation of this vulnerability has yet been identified. Indeed, this would require considerable resources from hackers.

But there’s one final reason, discussed later in the interview: money. HP sells its printers at a loss and makes a profit on the sale of ink cartridges. This business model is also used for razors and video game consoles, for example. And if an HP printer customer doesn’t buy an HP cartridge, the company won’t make a profit. And the company’s CEO has his own formula for describing this type of customer.

« Everytime a customer buys a printer it’s an investment for us. We’re investing on that customer. And if this customer doesn’t print enough or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s an bad investment. »

It couldn’t be clearer. You have now been warned. If you use an HP printer, you’ll absolutely have to use their inks, or risk not being able to use your printer at all.

Do you own an HP printer? What do you think of this practice? Tell us in the comments section.