Has the world changed though? I'm pretty sure all the other consumer printer companies still run off this model. If HP was to break ranks and start charging (ef

Has the world changed though? I'm pretty sure all the other consumer printer companies still run off this model. If HP was to break ranks and start charging (effectively) a premium for their printers by selling them for a profit, would consumers actually buy them over the cheaper alternatives that are still subsidized by ink sales? The state of the ad-subsidized LCD TV market suggests that customers either don't know or don't care about what they're trading for lower prices - so I suspect that selling printers at a profit would be a net loss of revenue for HP.