I think many people don't know better and when you go to a store you see ultra-cheap inkjet that can print in color or significantly more expensive B&W laser (or much more significantly expensive color laser, that's still not as good for pictures) and if you don't know any better it's hard to justify going for the laser.
I suspect that they might also be a strange factor that inkjet managed to corner the market by being crap, and not despite of it. People now effectively expect two things about personal printers:
- They're cheap
- They're crap
TFA is an example of this mindset. But then if you go to the store expecting to get a piece of shit printer, you're clearly going for the cheapest available option. Which means that you get a crap inkjet that you'll have to replace in two years, and then you'll buy an other crap cheap inkjet.
But I agree with both of you: after a few iterations of this cycle I finally decided to know better and bought the cheapest Brother B&W laser printer and it's been a joy. It just works.
If you don't buy a crap inkjet but instead get a more expensive one you're looking to get ripped off when the manufacturer stops producing the special ink cartridges you need for your super cool expensive inkjet.
Printers were the trial run for how to do customer relations on the IoT.
I had to google, and found I picked up my Brother HLL8350CDW (color, wireless, 4 independent colors) back in 2014 for $377 on Amazon. Thing has been rock solid - surviving both my daughter's high school years and my Bride using heavily for her work. When that beast finally dies, another Brother - no questions.
Up until about 6 months ago I woulda agreed with you but in the last 6 months all my brother printers have had odd connection issues, something about the driver changed and now I need to restart the print spooler each time I want to print something.
I suspect that they might also be a strange factor that inkjet managed to corner the market by being crap, and not despite of it. People now effectively expect two things about personal printers:
- They're cheap
- They're crap
TFA is an example of this mindset. But then if you go to the store expecting to get a piece of shit printer, you're clearly going for the cheapest available option. Which means that you get a crap inkjet that you'll have to replace in two years, and then you'll buy an other crap cheap inkjet.
But I agree with both of you: after a few iterations of this cycle I finally decided to know better and bought the cheapest Brother B&W laser printer and it's been a joy. It just works.