HP
has
a
new
proposition
in
a
time
when
(companies
like
it
have
made
sure)
you
don’t
really
control
much
about
your
computer
anyway:
why
don’t
you
just
let
HP
rent
you
one?
The
company
debuted
a
subscription
service
today
—
just
like
CEO
Enrique
Lores
said
it
would
last
month
—
called
the
HP
All-In
Plan.
It’s
essentially
an
extension
of
HP’s
Instant
Ink,
and
like
that
plan,
you’ll
have
ink
sent
to
you
as
you
approach
empty,
but
unlike
it,
your
monthly
fee
also
covers
the
printer
itself.
Which
printer
you
get
depends
on
the
plan
you
choose.
They
start
at
$6.99
per
month
for
20
pages’
worth
of
prints
and
whatever
the
current
HP
Envy
model
is,
and
go
all
the
way
up
to
a
$35.99-a-month
affair
that
gets
you
an
OfficeJet
Pro
and
700
pages.
If
you
go
over
your
page
allotment,
HP
will
add
more
for
a
dollar
per
block
of
10–15
pages.
But
each
plan
is
a
two-year
rental,
not
a
lease-to-own
situation.
So
if
you
decide
HP
All-In
isn’t
for
you
after
all,
you’ll
have
to
return
the
printer
and
go
back
to
rubbing
elbows
with
everyone
else
at
FedEx
whenever
the
need
to
print
arises.
And
if
you
cancel
after
an
initial
30-day
trial
or
before
two
years,
you’ll
pay
a
fee
as
high
as
$270,
depending
on
the
plan
and
when
you
cancel.
The
subscription,
like
HP’s
recent
ad
campaign
promoting
its
printers
as
“made
to
be
less
hated,”
trades
on
the
idea
that
printers
are
frustrating
commodities.
The
company’s
configurator
page
mentions
bonuses
like
“continuous
printer
coverage”
and
“next-business-day
printer
replacement,”
for
instance.
That
way,
if
a
firmware
upgrade
blue-screens
your
printer,
at
least
you
have
some
recourse
that
doesn’t
involve
driving
to
a
store
to
buy
a
whole
new
one.
There
are
people
this
plan
will
undoubtedly
appeal
to.
Not
everybody
cares
that
deeply
about
feeling
like
they
own
their
printer.
And
receiving
ink
before
you
run
out
is
great
if
you
are,
like
me,
the
kind
of
person
who
ignores
the
“low
ink”
warning
all
the
way
until
I’m
fully
out
and
am
actually
printing
something
critical,
rather
than
coloring
pages
for
your
kid,
for
once.
But
those
are
mostly
functions
of
the
fact
that
I
don’t
really
print
that
often
and
rarely
encounter
the
annoyances
of
printer
ownership.
For
those
who
do,
companies
can
take
two
paths.
One
is
HP’s
plan,
which
appeals
to
the
frustration
of
user-hostile
experiences
like
scanners
that
don’t
work
because
you
bought
third-party
ink
and
printers
that
become
unusable
without
some
serious
effort
because
you
moved
overseas.
The
other
approach
is
making
printers
that
mostly
just
do
the
thing
you
want
them
for.
Original author: Wes Davis
Comments