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Technology Stocks : Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave B who wrote (1419)	7/19/2002 3:20:06 PM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4345

I thought Dell pretty much said they're not looking at this at the moment, but I'll play Devil's advocate for a second anyway: On my HP inkjet, I get a message BEFORE the ink cartridge runs out, telling me something like "ink running low, buy new cartridge." Usually it gives me plenty of time to go out and buy one, even if I get the message on a weekend evening and can't be bothered to get to Staples until Monday. Now, imagine instead that it pops up an order form onto your screen. "Ink running low, order cartridge NOW and it will be delivered within two days." Enter your credit card and the cartridge is on its way. This might not be adequate for people who do really heavy printing work and run through cartridges very quickly, but most people like that tend to keep spares around. I know I used to. It becomes like toilet paper, something you buy when you are running low, not something you buy when you've already run out. Today's printers give you plenty of notice that you're running low. Personally, I doubt they'll move in that direction, but I've always thought HP did themselves a disservice by not building in "instant order" capability to the low-ink warnings. My understanding was the this capability was discussed at various times, but that the marketing people believed it would cause problems with retailers, who might instead favor somebody else's printers. mg