Built-in obsolescence

[Jaded]

I have a 10 year old b&w Laser. It is USB only, so I looked at newer machines. I can get a machine with Ethernet, WiFi, NFC (and USB), duplex and a larger toner cartridge for 50% more than a toner for the old printer.

I ordered one and some toner for the colour laser. They phoned be up and suggested it would be better to buy a brand new colour laser (with WiFi and AirPrint) and duplex, because it came with 6k page toner cartridges. Throw in an 8k page black cartridge and the total package was £300 cheaper than the toner.

Now, I understand that the toner cartridges have to be sent back to the manufacturer, and that incurs a bit of a cost. Also that machines are now cheaper than they were5  years ago. But how on earth can a brand new printer with a full set of toner and an extra black one can be half the price of 4 toner cartridges for an older printer?

[ian]

Presumably there's a better margin on selling a new machine. I can't imagine that factories are kept tooled up to refill toner cartridges, the hassle (and economics) of shipping them to Farofflandia is probably prohibitive. On the other hand the supply chain and capability exists to knock out the printers for not very much.

And of course, the model was always to make a loss on the printer with an attractive up-front-cost and then gouge it back through consumables, though that seems to have gone awry as component and assembly costs have fallen.

It's all a bit mad, but that's the way of things.