HP to Region-code Cartridges

prostoalex writes "Looks like the printer cartridge manufacturers will be borrowing techniques from Hollywood. HP introduced region coding for some of the newest printers sold in Europe. HP's US location and US dollar sliding lead to the situation, where cartridge prices in Europe are significantly higher than those in the States. In the Wall Street Journal article HP representative in Europe claims the company doesn't make any money off regional coding for cartridges, and that consumers will win once the US dollar rises over Euro."

Dollar rising

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, the dollar will rise against the euro!?!?! When exactly? From where I'm looking, it looks like the current barmy US economic policy will see it sliding indefinately... say goodbye to buying oil with dollars.

There is a probe by EC into this already

[arivanov]

Well, more material for the boys from Brussels. I guess HP is doing their best to break MSFT record for an EC fine.

Import printers?

[lintux]

How are they going to prevent me from importing a printer together with the cartridges? Or will they find some neat software scheme in the driver to find out in which country the printer is being used?

Oh well, time to find a printer manufacturer with printers as their core business instead of selling printer ink for gold-prices.

Printers are $50,-, let's bulk import them!

[MavEtJu]

Since printers are $50,- these days anyways, it's still cheaper to bulk import them from overseas and also get the overseas cartridges while we're at it.

Re:How Stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Consumers will win once the US dollar rises over Euro"

The smart money is on a further 30% reduction of the value of the dollar relative to the Euro over the next 2 to 3 years, and around 15% against a basket of world currencies.

Re:Greedy?

[R0UTE]

Don't forget that this will also mean 3rd party manufacturers of cartridges will have to adopt this technology, therefore meaning higher expenses for them and the time it takes for them to make compatible cartridges meaning, alas, everyone has to buy HP cartridges, so don't tell me this isn't a profit grabbing mechanism!

Re:It's just Lexmark all over again

[mcbridematt]

it'll be the Australians.

While I recognise your sarcasm, if HP does it down here, the ACCC (Australian Competition and Comsumer Commission) will probably belt them down, like they already have done for DVDs.

Every DVD player here is cheap and region unlocked. The only sane reason for buying some brand name contraption is if you want it to tie into your home theatre system well.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Greedy?

[lythotype]

The points brought up are exactly the reasons I choose a Canon printer when I needed a new printer. I choose the Canon I850 because of its speed and photo printing quality.

The ink tanks are separated by color, are transparent, and include no electronics on the tank itself.

And I can purchase new tanks for $9 each, locally, when a particular color runs out.

Since the tanks don't have an electronic components, the printer doesn't "talk" to the tanks, so no funny stuff is happening with Canon tanks.

Re:"Consumers will win once the US dollar rises"

[hachete]

In the same interview - I saw it on satellite last night - he also agreed with the interviewer that , with the dollar going down, *inflation* will be on the rise just behind it.

Re:Where's AntiTrust when you need them?

[agoliveira]

Not counting that in the rest of the world is not crime to circunvent this kind of measure. Here in Brazil we have lots of companies that sells ink cardriges. Some of them are as good as the originals. The only thing the original manufacturers can do is to make ads like "Use only a original XX cardrige or youir printer will fail, burn your house and kill your dog". And, BTW, all DVD players sold here can have it's region enconding changed as will as well. And guess what? It's quite rare to see bootleg DVDs because people here prefer region 4 DVDs because they have the local language and/or subtitles and the ones like me who have imported stuff which is not usually published around here is very happy to be able to see a DVD which was legally imported and paid for.

Re:Greedy?

[ocelotbob]

Canons have user replaceable printheads. They're kind of expensive, however, so usually, it's worth it just to buy a new printer when the head finally dies.

Yet another reason....

[archeopterix]

... to invest in a continuous flow system. CFSes exist for all of the popular printers out there. Once you buy and install one you only pay for ink. Yes, ink, not cartridges. You buy by the bottle and since ink is practically a commodity there's no artificial monopoly to screw you. Warranty, schmarranty - you can buy a brand new printer with the money saved.

Buy a Postscript printer

[anti-NAT]

Yes, they are more expensive, however it tends to be the "native" format for most Unix / Linux applications, and brand independent.

I have a HP LaserJet 6MP with Postscript for that reason. I did pay a small fortune for it a number of years ago, including upgrading the ram to 19MB (3MB factory + 16 MB). If and when I replace it, I may not buy a HP again, however I'll certainly be looking for a Postscript replacement.

Re:Dollar rising

[Anonymous Coward]

It would have been just as profitable for the US goverment to buy $200 billion worth of goods and burn them. Or maybe give them away in the inner city or something. Until Iraq starts making products/services/something the "profits" are coming from taxes so the net result is Americans losing money. In the long term it may be profitable however I simply don't see Iraq staying US friendly for very long. We're putting the "same" religious psychos into power who are ruling Iran (Saddam was a secular leader by most accounts), and I doubt they'll choose the US over their brothers across the border.

The funniest thing I've heard recently is the US wanting to invade Iran, they can barely hold a country who wanted to get rid of their leader, where those removed from power where a minority and mostly religiously moderate (and whose populace was not forced to be highly religious ie: brainwashed). In Iraq half the people are helping the suicide bombers, in Iran half the people will be suicide bombers.

Re:My opinion: Fire Carly Fiorina!

[Anonymous Coward]

Epson.

My first printer, an FX-80 spoke a dialect of the same printer control language (now known as ESC-P2) as the Epson Photostylus 820 now on my desktop. 24 years of incremental improvements without unnecessarily breaking software - that's been exceedingly friendly to free software (and all other publisher for that matter).

I did the same thing

[XPACT]

I am a happy owner of SAMSUNG ML-1210 /laser/ not an inkjet. It works like a charm/Fedora Core 1/. I been having that printer for 3 years. Samsung have drivers for linux on theyr web site, bu t the distros altrady have support for it.

Re:Greedy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked in a call center on one of HP's toll free numbers selling computers. The profit margin on their ink has to be something like 99%, because they put a LOT of pressure on us to sell it. At one point we were even getting straight cash bonuses for each ink / paper item we sold. Some people sold enough in one week to almost double their paycheque.

They're not doing it to make more money? I call bullshit. What other possible reason could they have for placing limits on something you're paying for?

A political angle?

[swb]

I wondered if the people who put the region concept together didn't figure on not only protecting regional price differentials, but gaining better entry to markets sensitive to content for ideological reasons by "ensuring" that content they didn't like wasn't playable on the recorders commonly available within that region.

This would explain why the region code map has some significant geographical incongruities and why China is its own region.

Re:Business opportunity

[Abalamahalamatandra]

Speak for yourself - my wife does scrapbooking and prints out a LOT of pictures. I would happily have paid $200 for the Epson C84 printer I have, if I had the assurance that a full set of printer carts would always cost in the $10-15 range. This razor-blade arrangement we have now SUCKS.

I saw a web page the other day talking about the fact that a freaking MICROWAVE OVEN can be bought for less than a set of ink cartridges for the average printer. How does that work, exactly? The carts are priced artifically high, that's how.

Globalisation & game theory

[Tune]

Indeed. In terms of game theory it's also important to notice the inbalance of power between players. That is: a large company, like HP, can afford to divide the world market into different economic regions, while smaller companies may not.

In that light, it is not just the consumers who pay for HP's corporate wealth, but smaller companies will be forced to pay their share as well through unfair competition. Still, *they*'re supposed to be the only way out of the situation in a free economy. That is: free trade, and companies adhering to the principles of free trade are supposed to (somehow) conquer totalitarian regimes and companies and bring universal freedom, democracy, wealth and happiness to everyone eventually... ...It's so easy to show that free trade without corporate governance, international legislation, anti-trust and other regulation isn't helping anyone except those that don't need it.