Nor practical.
There used to be a time when the printer manufacturers did bundle full-sized cartridges with new printers. Back when I worked retail ~15 years ago, this was definitely the case with some Lexmark inkjets. We used to sell people a new printer, open up the box, give them the cartridge(s), and then offer to recycle/trash everything else. Eventually printer manufacturers caught on.
YMMV but for know I'm sticking with OEM toner. And yes, the toner 4-pack is more expensive than a new printer. So much so that when I used up the toner on my printer I bought a new one since I wasn't all that satisfied with the printer I had.
The 3rd party black toner carts have never given me issues. Is there something different about color toner? Has the fact that my printer is 15 years old allowed 3rd party toner/cart makers time to "get it right"? Or are new printers just crap in comparison to older models?
Thats why I avoid HP printers.
The first fact is that HP offers the printer and cartridges at similar prices on their web site. This means the discrepancy is not due to a crazy sale on Amazon. Even according to the HP web site, the price of four replacement cartridges is $822, while the price of the printer (which includes the cartridges) is $699. Though Amazon reports that at some point, the printer may have been sold for up to $885 since it was launched in October, that's still almost identical to the cost of the cartridges.)
Second, also by design, the printer comes with the full cartridges, not starter ones...
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF28a/18972-18972-33...
1) HP makes a profit when people buy this $699 printer (though not as large as when they sell four ink tanks without a printer for $822);
2) Every printer re-purchase helps maintain their 40% marketshare in the printer business, if it's measured by printers sold rather than cartridges sold;
3) Every printer re-purchase keeps a sale away from Brother or another competitor;
4) HP's printing division has now been merged into the declining PC division, so nobody would notice the declining printer margins amongst lower-margin PC's anyway.
"HP's new CEO Meg Whitman, who calls the printing division "the lifeblood of HP," responded to the decline by folding it into the PC division, which saw a 15% drop in revenue last quarter. That will solve one problem: concealing the extent of the decline in HP's printer margins by blending it with lower-margin PCs. More practically, it could give HP greater leverage in negotiating prices with component suppliers."
From: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/29/hps-printer-problem/
> "Sounds like a market begging for disruption." (in comments)
There have been 'disrupters' at work for many years now. I wish people wouldn't assume that (a) this sort of market distortion hasn't been noticed for years, (b) leveraged for almost as many, and (c) that there are actually reasons why the market delivers these prices.
I guess the situation is different for business-grade stuff where the toner costs $800 a pop.
It's in Russian, but look at the pics: it's the same cartridges made in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Also according to original story those are only from 2010 and 2012 + another model added for comparison: HP 350/2010 (left), HP 350/2012 (center), HP 301/2012 (right).
Original non-blogspam article in English: http://www.hpinkcartridges.co.uk/technology-blog/2012/05/hp-...
Granted, it may have been tried numerous times and failed due to the hardware dominance the major printer players enjoy (and throwing out an existing printer isn't the same as throwing out a razor from Gillette, so you have to capture transitional customers). And of course hair grows fairly consistently, whereas ink usage is less consistent - but offices can always stock back a couple cartridges if they're not using enough and downgrade their account with the click of a button until they burn through them.
My printer hasn't printed for at least a year. The scanner still works, and UPS/Staples is just down the street. Not for everyone, works for me. HP can die in a fire.
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/12/03/211250/what-do-you-do...
There are also 2000 page low yield color and 11000 page high yield black cartridges available.
The replacement cartridges he is looking at are 6000 page yield for color and 11000 for black. So the black is twice the capacity of the original.
You can also find aftermarket compatible toner, the high yield version 10,000 black and 6,000 for each color, for $330 for a complete set of cartridges for this machine - http://www.lenscomputers.com/hp-m551-vp.html.
But some people would want to sort the carts by price, and then see the printers that accept those carts. These people can't (for whatever reason) use toner refills or third-party carts. (There is a complication with number of sheets printer per cart, but that's easy enough to fix.)
And if you're a toner refill company some people will buy printers based on how much they'll have to spend to get new toner, so listing your cheapest print-per-page refill kit would be useful.
