Worth reading the whole article, I'm only referencing a couple of specifics. The very last sentence of the article is what it was all leading to, and excellently summed up into what is a modern recurring theme: good business practice is consumer-unfriendly practice.
I thought this was specifically called the "Gillette Business Model". Reading the relevant wikipedia page[0], which also mentions printers and ink, calls it the "razor and blade" model.
One must also familiarise oneself with the "Machine that goes ping" Monty Python skit (on YT, watch it, it's much better than just reading the relevant quote). It was my first introduction to the complexities of corporate finance:
"Ah, I see you have the machine that goes 'ping!'. This is my favourite. You see, we lease this back from the company we sold it to - that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account"[1]
I almost lost a friendship on discussing that "good business is consumer-unfriendly". Because it fundamentally alters one's view of the consumerist-capitalism society we live in, it's very hard to accept for anyone invested in the system, even slightly. if one accepts that fact, then the question becomes: is there a level of user-unfriendliness that is morally acceptable? Or is it all pure and simple exploitation? Which cannot be logically answered in a clear and simple way; we just accept the status quo because we think any potential alternative would be worse, which we have no way of knowing.
I thought this was specifically called the "Gillette Business Model". Reading the relevant wikipedia page[0], which also mentions printers and ink, calls it the "razor and blade" model.
One must also familiarise oneself with the "Machine that goes ping" Monty Python skit (on YT, watch it, it's much better than just reading the relevant quote). It was my first introduction to the complexities of corporate finance:
"Ah, I see you have the machine that goes 'ping!'. This is my favourite. You see, we lease this back from the company we sold it to - that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account"[1]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model
[1]: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_The_Meaning_o...