4 ms·

Desktop printers will have the same demise as cable tv and landline phones: quality will continue to go down and prices up as providers squeeze any remaining pr

Desktop printers will have the same demise as cable tv and landline phones: quality will continue to go down and prices up as providers squeeze any remaining profits out of the business.

philjohn 5y ago
Which is why when I was in the market for a new printer I went for a model meant for a medium sized office - a pretty hefty Xerox Versalink. The toner cartridges last 8-10k pages and if you purchase at least one a year (easy enough to do) they extend your next day onsite parts and labour support contract. I got an amazing deal on it as well - but not the typical $80 "make a loss on the printer and make it back on ink" that consumer models adhere to.
freeone3000 5y ago
And what, exactly, is replacing them? What else can convert a digital document to paper form?
- quicklime 5y ago
  Other than digital forms? The printer at work, which is free and convenient if you work in an office. Or the one at the local copy shop, which is 10c a page. I probably spend ~$1/year printing out forms, there aren’t that many left…
- SilverRed 5y ago
  Nothing replaced them. The need for paper forms has mostly evaporated. For the rare cases you need something printed you can use a dedicated print store / office store with printing or the local library. There is no need for the average person to need a printer anymore.
  - pimeys 5y ago
    I really understand your view and I remember the times 10 years ago when everything was digital already. Then I moved to Germany. Here paper is king still, and its usage is going up (compared to the rest of the Europe). You need to deal with some bureaucracy's? Register on their internet site, they'll send you an OTP in mail. You might be able to do some things online, most of the stuff are tight letters sent to your mailbox. Even better, some offices still require you to use a fax machine. Good luck, if you're 20something and never used one. I'm almost in my 40s and 2019 was the first time in my life I needed a fax, in Germany. And I highly doubt the usage of paper will go down in anytime soon here...
axus 5y ago
I feel like these are prompts to advertise Brother network printers. The quality makes me consider buying their sewing machine.
- turbocon 5y ago
  Ah yes I figured I'd fine one like me in here. Seriously though, if you're having issues with your printer throw it away and buy a Brother printer, they just work and they have reasonable prices for replacement ink. They actually created a new type of inkjet printer, the ink tank printer[1] where you buy the ink in bottles and just pour it into printer tanks, it supposedly ends up being even cheaper on ink than laser printing. [1] https://www.brother-usa.com/what-is-a-tank-printer https://www.brother-usa.com/what-is-a-tank-printer
  - Hello71 5y ago
    Brother did not invent ink tanks. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertank_printers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertank_printers, Epson first introduced supertank printers to the US market, but continuous ink systems with (I assume) external tanks are at least 15 years old: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Continuous_ink_system&dir=prev&action=history https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Continuous_ink_sy.... As far as I can tell, your linked article doesn't even claim that Brother invented ink tanks, merely that Brother sells them and they are good.
pengaru 5y ago
> Desktop printers will have the same demise as cable tv and landline phones: quality will continue to go down and prices up as providers squeeze any remaining profits out of the business. Landline phone-call quality has always been and continues to be infinitely better than anything people are using today to replace it. I can't believe that in 2021 people aren't actively revolting over how useless smartphones are at actually doing phone duties.
- mcpherrinm 5y ago
  I guess the voice quality is fine for me. Maybe that's because of whatever "HD Voice" that my carrier claims to have. The reality is, I rarely make phone calls anymore either way. Almost everything is a video call now, whether on Zoom or Google Meet or Facetime or Whatsapp. Even if I get a "land line", it's just an expensive VOIP line from my ISP.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  Landlines are VoIP in most cases now. In Europe most DSL customers' "landlines" are actually plugged into an FXS port which simulates a landline with dialtone to an analog phone but in reality it all goes over IP and SIP. Even if we assume you've got a real landline, it's most likely that your call will transit over IP anyway at some point unless you're calling your neighbor who's on the same phone exchange. The reason for the perceived higher quality is most likely because it all goes over stable wired networks and not due to the analog nature of the landline, and so can be replicated with a SIP deskphone, computer or even smartphone as long as your network is stable (most consumer-grade network gear is crap and most Wi-Fi connections often operate in a degraded mode that appears "fine" for browsing but fails for interactive latency-sensitive tasks such as calls).
- NavinF 5y ago
  Can not relate. If you have a good mic, decent internet, and your friends use Discord (or any other app that uses Opus), call quality is infinitely better than landline.
  - ipython 5y ago

Desktop printers will have the same demise as cable tv and landline phones: quality will continue to go down and prices up as providers squeeze any remaining profits out of the business.

philjohn 5y ago

Which is why when I was in the market for a new printer I went for a model meant for a medium sized office - a pretty hefty Xerox Versalink. The toner cartridges last 8-10k pages and if you purchase at least one a year (easy enough to do) they extend your next day onsite parts and labour support contract. I got an amazing deal on it as well - but not the typical $80 "make a loss on the printer and make it back on ink" that consumer models adhere to.

freeone3000 5y ago

And what, exactly, is replacing them? What else can convert a digital document to paper form?

quicklime 5y ago
Other than digital forms? The printer at work, which is free and convenient if you work in an office. Or the one at the local copy shop, which is 10c a page. I probably spend ~$1/year printing out forms, there aren’t that many left…
SilverRed 5y ago
Nothing replaced them. The need for paper forms has mostly evaporated. For the rare cases you need something printed you can use a dedicated print store / office store with printing or the local library. There is no need for the average person to need a printer anymore.
- pimeys 5y ago
  I really understand your view and I remember the times 10 years ago when everything was digital already. Then I moved to Germany. Here paper is king still, and its usage is going up (compared to the rest of the Europe). You need to deal with some bureaucracy's? Register on their internet site, they'll send you an OTP in mail. You might be able to do some things online, most of the stuff are tight letters sent to your mailbox. Even better, some offices still require you to use a fax machine. Good luck, if you're 20something and never used one. I'm almost in my 40s and 2019 was the first time in my life I needed a fax, in Germany. And I highly doubt the usage of paper will go down in anytime soon here...

axus 5y ago

I feel like these are prompts to advertise Brother network printers. The quality makes me consider buying their sewing machine.

turbocon 5y ago
Ah yes I figured I'd fine one like me in here. Seriously though, if you're having issues with your printer throw it away and buy a Brother printer, they just work and they have reasonable prices for replacement ink. They actually created a new type of inkjet printer, the ink tank printer[1] where you buy the ink in bottles and just pour it into printer tanks, it supposedly ends up being even cheaper on ink than laser printing. [1] https://www.brother-usa.com/what-is-a-tank-printer https://www.brother-usa.com/what-is-a-tank-printer
- Hello71 5y ago
  Brother did not invent ink tanks. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertank_printers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertank_printers, Epson first introduced supertank printers to the US market, but continuous ink systems with (I assume) external tanks are at least 15 years old: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Continuous_ink_system&dir=prev&action=history https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Continuous_ink_sy.... As far as I can tell, your linked article doesn't even claim that Brother invented ink tanks, merely that Brother sells them and they are good.

pengaru 5y ago

> Desktop printers will have the same demise as cable tv and landline phones: quality will continue to go down and prices up as providers squeeze any remaining profits out of the business. Landline phone-call quality has always been and continues to be infinitely better than anything people are using today to replace it. I can't believe that in 2021 people aren't actively revolting over how useless smartphones are at actually doing phone duties.

mcpherrinm 5y ago
I guess the voice quality is fine for me. Maybe that's because of whatever "HD Voice" that my carrier claims to have. The reality is, I rarely make phone calls anymore either way. Almost everything is a video call now, whether on Zoom or Google Meet or Facetime or Whatsapp. Even if I get a "land line", it's just an expensive VOIP line from my ISP.
Nextgrid 5y ago
Landlines are VoIP in most cases now. In Europe most DSL customers' "landlines" are actually plugged into an FXS port which simulates a landline with dialtone to an analog phone but in reality it all goes over IP and SIP. Even if we assume you've got a real landline, it's most likely that your call will transit over IP anyway at some point unless you're calling your neighbor who's on the same phone exchange. The reason for the perceived higher quality is most likely because it all goes over stable wired networks and not due to the analog nature of the landline, and so can be replicated with a SIP deskphone, computer or even smartphone as long as your network is stable (most consumer-grade network gear is crap and most Wi-Fi connections often operate in a degraded mode that appears "fine" for browsing but fails for interactive latency-sensitive tasks such as calls).
NavinF 5y ago
Can not relate. If you have a good mic, decent internet, and your friends use Discord (or any other app that uses Opus), call quality is infinitely better than landline.
- ipython 5y ago