Printer manufacturers not including USB cables is a recent trend, but one that most people have caught on to. When they started making the switch from parallel cables (the ones with a bunch of pins) to USB cables, they just decided to not include cables anymore. A lot of people didn’t notice at first, either because they were still using parallel cables or else they just weren’t upgrading. Then we started to hear a lot of complaints from people who got their printers home, got ready to set them up and then found that they couldn’t use them because there were no cables.

These days, printer manufacturers sometimes make a point of noting that USB cables do not come with the printer. Sometimes the same goes for the store that sells you the printer. So why exactly do they make you buy your own cable? Well, there are two basic explanations:

1) Printer companies make no money selling you the printer, so they will cut any expense that they can

or

2) Printer companies have some sort of deal with cable manufacturers

We know that printer companies make no money on printers, so that explanation isn’t too farfetched. The second reason might seem a little farfetched, but the world of cables is a seedy business. We’ve all seen ridiculously overpriced diamond-plated cables that sell for 3x times the price of normal cables. Well, those cables cost almost exactly the same to make as regular ones - there is virtually no difference. Back when printers only used parallel cables, there wasn’t much money in it because the use of those cables was limited. But now that USB is used for everything, it’s a big business and a lot of companies want a piece. Printer manufacturers aren’t interested in giving you anything for free, so is it too crazy to think they would have some sort of “understanding” with USB cable manufacturers?

Hmm….maybe it is.