HP on Thursday launched a printer subscription service that allows subscribers to rent a new printer, print a specific number of pages and receive ink from the company when they need it, for a fixed price per month.
Customers can choose from three new printers: the HP Envy, which costs $6.99 a month to rent, the HP Envy Inspire, which costs $8.99 a month, and the HP OfficeJet Pro, which costs $12.99 a month without initial costs. For comparison, the HP OfficeJet Pro line retails for $200 to $300, and HP’s replacement ink cartridges cost $27 each.
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The printer subscription service also falls in line with HP’s previous statements about the direction of its business. Last month, HP CEO Enrique Lores said that making printing a subscription was the company’s “long-term goal.”
“We lose money on hardware, we make money on supplies,” Lores told CNBC.
Lores said HP’s long-term goal was to reduce the number of “unprofitable” customers, or people who bought printers but didn’t spend money on supplies like ink cartridges.
“Every time a customer buys a printer, it’s an investment for us,” Lores told the outlet. “If this customer doesn’t print enough or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s a bad investment.”
HP has been sued more than once for preventing users who own their own printers from printing with non-HP ink cartridges. The company entered into a $1.5 million class-action settlement in 2019 over the issue, with more recent lawsuits filed this year.
HP isn’t the first to experiment with subscription services. Epson launched its ReadyPrint subscription service in 2020 that also provides a rental printer and automatic ink cartridge replacement, but some users encountered snags with the service in 2022 that left them unable to print.
Enrique Lores, president and CEO of HP Inc. Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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This isn’t even HP’s first subscription service: HP’s Instant Ink plan automatically brings ink to subscribers’ doors when HP detects they’re running low from $0.99 to $25.99 per month.
“We see a 20% increase in the value of that customer because you’re locking that person in, committing to a long-term relationship,” Marie Myers, HP’s chief financial officer, said at a UBS Global Tech conference in December.
Subscribers to HP’s new service can choose to print from 20 pages per month for $6.99 to 700 pages per month for $36. As with the Instant Ink plan, HP detects when you’re running low on ink and automatically delivers replacement cartridges at no additional cost. If the printer jams or has a problem, subscribers have access to 24/7 live support. After two years, HP offers the option to upgrade to a new printer or continue with the old one.