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HP CEO: Printed Pages Are Down 20% Since Pandemic (theregister.com) 83

HP is facing something of a challenge as the number of printed pages has decreased by 20% since the pandemic. "On the office space, clearly, the amount of pages that is being printed is lower than before the pandemic," HP boss Enrique Lores told tech investors at Bernstein's 40th Annual Strategic Decision Conference last week. "And this is really driven by what we call hybrid work. There are less people in the office every day, and this has driven the amount of pages down." The Register reports: "I use pages as a proxy because, depending on what happens with pages, happens eventually with devices. Before the pandemic, our estimates were that we were expecting to see a 20 percent reduction of printing. And actually, we were looking at the numbers ... and this is more or less where we are." In terms of users printing at home, "during the pandemic, we saw a spike of pages printed, and since then, the number of pages has been declining," Lores added. The levels are not unexpected, though, he said. The industrial customer base was "impacted during the last two or three years by a reduction of capital investments," but recovery is showing up, with those customers printing more labels and packaging. Previous research by IDC showed around 450 billion fewer pages were printed in homes and office worldwide in 2020 versus the year before the pandemic, equating to a 19 percent plunge. It merely accelerated the long-term trend. [...]
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HP CEO: Printed Pages Are Down 20% Since Pandemic

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  • by burni2 ( 1643061 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:01AM (#64532717)

    You will see!

  • That probably means 20% of the woodlands will be sold for development if the paper isn't used.

    • Re:Forestry (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @08:05AM (#64532963)

      That probably means 20% of the woodlands will be sold for development if the paper isn't used.

      Copy paper is only one part of the paper market.

      There's also cardboard, packaging, toilet paper, paper towels, newsprint, etc.

      • Don't forget non-paper uses for wood like construction lumber, particle board, furniture, plywood, etc...

        Though with MJ being legalized/decriminalized, supposedly Hemp might take over from wood for the pulp, apparently it can make amazing paper. But then, I've heard the same thing for things like bamboo.

        • by tbords ( 9006337 )

          Don't forget non-paper uses for wood like construction lumber, particle board, furniture, plywood, etc...

          Though with MJ being legalized/decriminalized, supposedly Hemp might take over from wood for the pulp, apparently it can make amazing paper. But then, I've heard the same thing for things like bamboo.

          Bamboo makes incredible TP and paper towels.

  • by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:17AM (#64532727)

    I had to buy an HP printer during the pandemic and it was utter garbage. A 30 page PDF would completely empty brand new ink cartridges.

    • Re:Printer (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fuzznutz ( 789413 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @11:09AM (#64533337)
      HP has destroyed their reputation, credibility and good will of years past. I recently replaced two older HP color laser printers with EcoTank Epsons at work. Page cost is way lower and I don't have to worry about HP slipping unwanted DRM into a driver update. We used to buy HP exclusively in the past and now I wouldn't take one if you gave it to me.
    • A 30 page PDF would completely empty brand new ink cartridges.

      It sounds like you're talking about the sample cartridges in the new printer. No print cartridges, not even HP ones would run out if you were just printing 30 pages, even if they were full A4 sized colour photos.

      No doubt HP will be lying through their teeth and you won't get 300 pages, but 30 is being equally dishonest.

    • I had to buy an HP printer during the pandemic and it was utter garbage. A 30 page PDF would completely empty brand new ink cartridges.

      I don't know of a better stock to short... but I don't gamble. :)

  • Non Sequitur (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bob_Who ( 926234 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:31AM (#64532735) Journal

    It seems more likely the "rip off ink" business model is bearing market decline.

    Resentments spread like a virus.

    • by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

      This. Hopefully it spreads to their other businesses as well. Personally I've already scratched HP off the list for server purchases due to their printer shenanigans.

      Don't bite the hand that feeds you!

      • I get the sentiment, but HPE, (servers,) is a different company from HP, (printers.)

        Still, avoid them anyway. The most recent Proliants are trash.

      • by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Beyond the information mishandling and everything-as-a-subscription model, HPE servers are overpriced like HP's ink cartridges. The list price is pretty easily six times what Supermicro charges for a comparable server.

    • He's right, because I came here to post something similar to this. Ruining your product does not drive up sales. It drives away customers.
    • While I hate "rip off ink" as much as anyone, I'd say the decline has more to do with people having more paperless options, and younger people becoming more comfortable with them. Many older people still want hard copies to hold, but these days it's *finally* possible to even buy a house without stacks of paper. I literally get no bills in the mail these days (they're all electronic), but my older neighbor still does.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        While I hate "rip off ink" as much as anyone, I'd say the decline has more to do with people having more paperless options, and younger people becoming more comfortable with them. Many older people still want hard copies to hold, but these days it's *finally* possible to even buy a house without stacks of paper. I literally get no bills in the mail these days (they're all electronic), but my older neighbor still does.

        Or maybe it's because people have access to equipment they need.

        When you're in the office a

        • by spitzak ( 4019 )

          The things I stopped printing were airline confirmations, eventbrite tickets, and tax returns (for "safe keeping"). The only thing left is shipping labels, I have to go to a store to print those.

    • The black toner alone for the HP printers we have is 1000% of the price of the toner for the SHARP printers, and they're flimsy AF. And every so often they just stop printing until power cycled.

    • HP has realized this. Look at the "Smart Tank" printers from HP. Much more affordable supplies.

  • by bsdetector101 ( 6345122 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:35AM (#64532743)
    In fact, in comparison to Epson and Canon, home HP printers have the most expensive ink per page. Along with how controlling they are with their printers and numerous other issues which you can look up, just a bad deal overall. Hybrid work at companies are also hurting them. I used to have inkjet printers for years then switched to a Brothers color laser printer several years ago, good Christmas deal, and wished I had switched sooner.
    • I actually have a 10+ year old HP multifunction color laser - but it's the bottom of their commercial line, not their home line. I certainly wouldn't go HP today. But as long as my machine works.

      • by taustin ( 171655 )

        Traditionally, HP printers were workhorses, though their drivers have always been somewhere between suspect and flakey (maybe because they wrote new drivers for every model from scratch).

        They pissed it away completely with their business practices, and now their hardware is crap, too.

    • I've got a multifunction monochrome Brothers laser printer. It was inexpensive, works fine and it is very cheap to operate.

    • by taustin ( 171655 )

      My newest home printer is a Brother color laser MFP. Love it. I scan more than I print, so it sits for long periods idle. No clogged jets, no empty ink cartridges from cleaning the print head, and it seems to stay connected to the WiFi reliably even if I don't touch it for weeks at a time. (I did get a cover for it, to keep the dust out.)

    • ... I wonder if the current ones (all in one including fax) are still good.

      • by tbords ( 9006337 )

        ... I wonder if the current ones (all in one including fax) are still good.

        I have three I'm supporting that were switched from HP printers. Previously, I would have tickets come in for disconnect, randomly being signed out of their HP account (needed for scanning), the printer being unresponsive until after a reboot. After switching these three over to Brother, the tickets stopped.

  • by TheNameOfNick ( 7286618 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:46AM (#64532755)

    Everybody needed a home office. Can't be like that forever. You made bank thanks to a tragedy. Go bemoan in silence that things are better now.

  • Fuck you HP (Score:4, Funny)

    by e065c8515d206cb0e190 ( 1785896 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:48AM (#64532761)
    Just roll over and die
  • Time to panic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pollux ( 102520 ) <speter@[ ]ata.net.eg ['ted' in gap]> on Saturday June 08, 2024 @06:05AM (#64532781) Journal

    Oh no! Consumers are consuming less! What ever shall we do?!?

    Somewhere on our planet, the world's smallest violin is playing for this man.

    Fuck our corporate overlords.

  • I use a lot less paper the last few years. I use one of those Samsung tablets with a pen. Easy to make notes on pdf's, easy to read. (bright sunlight is still an issue.)
  • HP builds multi-function machines as well, the scanners SHOULD position them for doing well transitioning from a printed world to an exclusively digital one, but the software they provide for scanning is wholly inadequate. They don't even include OCR with their scanning software.
    • My problem with HP is that they won't let Windows do the job. They want to install all their extra crapware on your computer along with the drivers. Hundreds of megs of shit for what should be a few hundred k of driver.

  • It's an HP printer, can't make as many paper prints when the printer stops working or runs out of ink before the job is done.
  • In other words... (Score:5, Informative)

    by YuppieScum ( 1096 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @07:36AM (#64532911) Journal

    HP CEO admits their drivers and/or the printers themselves report your printer usage to the HP mothership.

  • by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @07:41AM (#64532923) Journal

    All I can say is that itâ(TM)s about time. The reason I say that is because thereâ(TM)s a tremendous amount of stuff being printed that really didnâ(TM)t need to be in the first place.

    At our local hospital for example, radiology orders are printed out. The technologist then optically scans that order into another system and shreds the paper. The printout literally exists for a matter of minutes. More stuff like this goes on in the business setting than youâ(TM)d imagine.

    • The technologist then optically scans that order into another system and shreds the paper.

      My workplace went through a multi-year endeavor to scan all of our historic documents, and making most (if not all) of our software generate all documents in digital form (nearly all being PDF) which are all accessible from all approved mobile devices and desktops.

      We have people in some departments that will print those documents, read them, then shred them.

    • The technologist then optically scans that order into another system and shreds the paper.

      Mandatory SOPs. In an environment susceptible to massive malpractice lawsuits. Different departments went paperless at different times. Procedures were developed to bridge the gap. And then never revisited.

      Same thing happened at Boeing a few decades ago. Clerical workers had a process that invovled pressing the PF12 key on a 3270 terminal to generate a paper report. Which would be delivered the next day in the company mail on 132 column tractor-feed paper. When we rehosted the process to the Web, some of t

    • by taustin ( 171655 )

      The medical profession has struggled for years with digitizing records. There's requirements in federal law these day, specifically requirements of making those records available electronically to other providers in the same medical group.

      My doctor dropped out of all but one medical groups because they each had their own different software, all of it flakey to the point they needed separate computers (expensive laptops so he could use them in the exam rooms) for each medical group because they wouldn't play

  • Making the world a better place one small step at a time because printers were sent from hell to make us miserable: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/... [theoatmeal.com]
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @08:06AM (#64532965)

    to the insane cost of printer ink and evil printer firmwares that refuse to print for spurious, corporate-greed-driven reasons.

    I for one have naturally gravitated towards as much paperlessness as possible, not because I wanted to or because I cared that much about the environment, but because printers piss the hell out of me.

    Printing should be a solved problem that should always work and cost pennies to use, like USB mice or memory fobs. And it should have been for decades now. It still isn't solely because of printer manufacturers.

    There's a special place in hell for printer makers. But the silver lining is, they are actively driving people away from printing and ultimately killing trees to make printing paper.

  • This guy isn't that bright. If I print 20% fewer pages, that doesn't mean I don't need a printer. It could be a proxy for ink or toner, but not the device. Perhaps people might buy smaller printers, but the replacement interval for printers is "when they break."
    • Think about an office environment with a boss looking at the budget and comparing printer cost to printer use.

      It's quite easy to say, "I don't care if you have to walk an extra 50 feet, we're reducing the number of printers we have because the use doesn't justify the expense of our current numbers".

    • HP and many other manufacturers uses printers as loss leaders. They recoup their costs and profits by selling ink and paper. When consumption of those are down it creates a problem for them. Personally, I don't think the printers should be subsidized in this way. It makes them disposable.

    • Perhaps people might buy smaller printers, but the replacement interval for printers is "when they break."

      In an office environment, in a company that is a medium to large company, printers are more likely to be rented, perhaps with paper and servicing thrown in -- in this scenario, they are likely to be replaced long before they break.

  • Stuff is still getting 'printed' its just that it is being printed to a .PDF file and shared over the network. Saving money (and trees)

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @08:27AM (#64533007)
    insane amounts of wasted money was tossed around by dragging us into the office. That money comes directly out of somebody's pocket. If you think they didn't notice or are going to prioritize your quality of life over their income you're just wrong.
  • Before the pandemic, when we all still worked on-site, we thought nothing of printing everything. I would work on projects that generated a lot of paper. Even during development of those projects, I would print hundreds of pages per months while getting the output to be at precise locations on the pages. The cycle would be: Code the positions, do a test print. If something was even slightly off, figure out how much it was off, then repeat.

    When the pandemic hit, the bosses asked us if there was anything we d

  • I started working full time at home many years before the pandemic. I used to print a fair number of pages before that when working in the office. My desk had stacks of white papers on it, etc. At home I think I printed an average of maybe 5-10 pages per year at most. That showed me I was formerly wasting a lot of paper.
  • Forget about the ink, when did you actually ever need to print anything? I can't remember printing anything at work for years. At home, I think I used the copy function maybe once, and then maybe a schedule? I expect printing will actually become more and more expensive because only the must-haves will be doing it, and they'll be willing to pay for it.

    • Although maybe I don't "need" to, I still print source code and mark it up with a pencil. While archaic, it works for me.

  • by davebarnes ( 158106 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @10:29AM (#64533235)

    "There are less people in the office every day"
    FEWER

  • After all the added expense of HP has driven people elsewhere.
  • if printed pages count is going down- they will still be safe for a business model- if you need to print a single page or 100 pages.. you still need toner, and a printer...

    but i think the real reason for THEIR print count going down is that it counted for consumers printing at home and not the office. Now that return to office is happening, people are printing stuff at work and using office printers- which to be honest, most are NOT HP, but better commercial printers. Plus a wider trend of using digital p

  • Because if people are switching to other brands, of course their page counts will be going down.

    Work from home and instead of the corporate policy of 'buying HP' for printing maybe they actually choose a more cost effective product.

    Over priced vendor lock-in can work both ways HP.
  • When you make all your profit selling paper and ink, the old bottom line takes a real hit when people stop printing stuff. Maybe HP should start focusing on tech stuff again.

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