> Saw this and thought of the recent thread on how we all price > our products and services. > > Microsoft is planning to go to a subscription service for its > software instead of selling boxed packages, May 2008 > http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/> 224866/
As regards the concept, sure, it's a money maker. The counter-argument is that people like choices, and will resist the 'my way or the highway' approach to anything, so our challenge is to take advantage of this scheme while also being sure to give our customers choices. One such is to be able to opt out of the maintenance plan, thereby paying only once for the installed version. I think they'll come back into the fold, but at least they have the choice. Another is monthly versus annual payments. We don't want a bunch of confusing choices either, so they have to be well thought out. Regarding 'tools' being sold on a one-time or subscription basis, I guess that opens a discussion on "what is a tool?". VFP can be called a tool, but I tend to think of tools as, say, VFPCompression, which is a great tool, but not something I would subscribe to. I know that I have a real aversion to subscriptions, but there are *some* that are unavoidable because they fill basic needs or so compelling as to overcome this aversion in others. It's our job to create such products (and we can't do that if we're stuck in the re-write loop!) Bill > Malcolm _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
