We have just reported that HP was recently sued over a measure that rendered the company's printers unusable when third-party ink cartridges were installed. Now, the company's CEO, Enrique Roles, says that HP "wants to make printing a subscription. Great. Not so.

It is well known that printers are routinely sold at a loss and generate substantial revenue from the sale of replacement ink cartridges; as Ars Technica reports, the move to a subscription model is just another attempt to maximize that profit stream.

"This is something we announced a few years ago: our goal is to reduce the number of what we call unprofitable customers. Because every time a customer buys a printer, it is an investment for us. We are investing in that customer, and if that customer doesn't print enough or doesn't use the supplies, it's a bad investment," said Rhoads, turning "loss-making sales" into a neat euphemism for "investment."

HP CFO Marie Myers also expanded on the subscription approach, noting that the company's existing cartridge subscription service, known as Instant Ink, "increases the value of that customer by 20% because you can surround that person

The company noted that it is able to.

In 2023, HP made more than $3 billion in profit from its printer business. In other words, a 20% add-on would mean hundreds of millions of dollars in additional profits.

Needless to say, forcing printer users into a subscription model would only make sense if the machines rejected third-party cartridges. Therefore, it is easy to see how HP's dynamic security features, if implemented to reject non-HP cartridges, would lay the groundwork for a subscription model.

Moreover, the court's ruling relating to existing printers purchased by consumers would not apply to printers that may be offered for free along with ink subscription agreements, such as perhaps those associated with cell phone or network charges.

HP has previously justified its dynamic security features from a security perspective, claiming that third-party cartridges can be infected by viruses. Digital security experts doubt the veracity of this claim, but in any case, it does not seem consistent with HP allowing USB devices to be connected to laptops.

But inkjet printers are tricky things. And there is another issue to be aware of. Not all HP printers implement dynamic security. However, HP has stated that even those that currently omit this feature may be updated in the future. Therefore, purchasing an HP printer without dynamic security today is no guarantee that it will remain so in the future.