It’s not because of a lack of competition but because of a lack of better patent laws. It is today near impossible to create a new printer without hitting any of the thousands patents (mines) that HP (and others) have. HP is not breaking any antitrust laws since technically they are not abusing their power against the market and against competitors ~directly~, so they do not break antitrust law. But they do it through abusing patents laws. Technically they are doing everything the law says…
HP hold the guns and if you dare compete good luck not infringing any of their patents and get sued. They love the cash cow it creates, the security their parents provides against competition and antitrust laws, and the lack of innovation and having to spend more money on R&D is fine for them.
If you sue them for breaking antitrust law they will show you how they don’t and how you are free to create your own printer company. But in reality again good luck not hitting any of their patents.
Patent laws are quite broken and will be for a long time. We need to change them.
Patents only last 20 years. Laser printers have been around for way longer than that. What's preventing someone from making printers with 2000s technology?
My guess is: the possibility of some of those patents having been refreshed through incremental modification, combined with the unwillingness to assert that you aren't infringing on any of the newer patents, should one of the major players disagree with you.
I don't get why people still advise the use of this junk. Are they really that ignorant of normal peoples use cases?
The processors and memory capacity on these things are so antiquated that unless you are printing text in a font that is onboard the printer you are waiting forever for it to "process" the document and then fail because it ran out of ram to be able to fit the page to draw it on to the drum.
Once you get the document processed and into ram, you are then waiting even longer because these printers actually have slow print speed.
All so you can save on some cheap toner and have some sort of perceived "reliability".
Its like those people who tell everyone to just use Linux. Yeah use it...if your time is worth nothing.
Have you ever used a LJ-III? Clearly not. It was probably the finest printer of its type made since the beginning of microcomputers.
You actually missed the point, it was its reliability I was talking about (if you'd ever seen one then my comment would have been self-evident). And I wasn't advising others to use one.
It was built like a tank, nothing breaks and it takes a lot of bashing. I purchased it over 30 years ago and it still works because it was built in the days when engineers ran HP and not fucking accountants.
"Once you get the document processed and into ram, you are then waiting even longer because these printers actually have slow print speed."
This is the clincher fact. Nothing like that happens, it works damn fast—no RAM delay and no waiting to print. (If I want more than 300dpi I just change to another printer.)
>Have you ever used a LJ-III? Clearly not. It was probably the finest printer of its type made since the beginning of microcomputers.
I have owned a LJ-IIp, Laserjet 5p, and currently have a Laserjet 4050tn(with less than 5,000 sheets on the engine) in the corner serving as a paperweight.
If I had known prices would explode post COVID I wouldn't have sent the others to recycling where they belong.
>You actually missed the point, it was its reliability I was talking about (if you'd ever seen one then my comment would have been self-evident). And I wasn't advising others to use one.
I did not miss the point but you seemed to have missed mine so let me reword it: Giving up everything else for "reliability" is not ideal because you just have a reliable printer that makes you miserable.
>It was built like a tank, nothing breaks and it takes a lot of bashing. I purchased it over 30 years ago and it still works because it was built in the days when engineers ran HP and not fucking accountants.
It was built during the days where they had text mode only and if you were lucky your printer could process some fonts on board. It sounds like thats all you print anyway. If you print a PDF of any meaningful complexity you'll be in a world of hurt real quick. I know from experience. All of a sudden all the reliability in the world means nothing because I can't get the contents of the darn file on to a piece of paper.
>This is the clincher fact. Nothing like that happens, it works damn fast—no RAM delay and no waiting to print. (If I want more than 300dpi I just change to another printer.)
The new printer printed three pages in the time it took the old one to print one! Don't even try to print a pdf or anything with graphics on it.
In addition to the engine just being faster, the speed is limited by the CPU in the printer that decodes the file and the speed by which it receives it: both of which are slower on the old printer. That is if you don't run out of RAM and then the printer errors out.
You have rose colored glasses on. This is like those crazy cat people who continue to justify their love for an animal that is scratching them and destroying their stuff all the time.
The top comment in that link is literally advocating for what I am advocating for. Forget the 30 year old junk and buy a modern business class laser printer...and you are set for most use cases.
HP hold the guns and if you dare compete good luck not infringing any of their patents and get sued. They love the cash cow it creates, the security their parents provides against competition and antitrust laws, and the lack of innovation and having to spend more money on R&D is fine for them.
If you sue them for breaking antitrust law they will show you how they don’t and how you are free to create your own printer company. But in reality again good luck not hitting any of their patents.
Patent laws are quite broken and will be for a long time. We need to change them.