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The mass market is use to paying little up front and expect updates and fixes forever for that one time fee which of course is non sustainable, subscription sof

The mass market is use to paying little up front and expect updates and fixes forever for that one time fee which of course is non sustainable, subscription software is/can be. I certainly hope we are not a place where something should be illegal because you disagree with one company/person. How is this on HackerNews?

JustSomeNobody 7y ago
In fairness it wasn’t always like this. People used to buy a box copy of SW for a fair price. then software shops started offering the $.99 app when app stores got into vogue. Now they want to migrate everyone to subscription models.
- giobox 7y ago
  The definition of “mass market” changed hugely too from the shelved box software era to app stores, so much so that I’m not even sure how fair it is to compare anymore. I’d argue that the majority of customers in the software market didn’t really evolve with the distribution model; phones arguably just expanded distribution to a great many people who previously weren’t software customers of any kind or rarely made software purchases at all (beyond that which came for “free” on their devices), many of whom appear to think paying for software in any fashion is almost unthinkable.
  - JustSomeNobody 7y ago
    > many of whom appear to think paying for software in any fashion is almost unthinkable. I still don't see how the fault lies with the customer. Look at all the software they get to use for free or cheap because the software shops made it available for free (with ads) or cheap ($.99 apps). This is not the customer's fault; they were trained to think this way.
- scarface74 7y ago
  People didn’t buy software - they pirated it. Businesses bought software.
dragonwriter 7y ago
> The mass market is use to paying little up front and expect updates and fixes forever for that one time fee which of course is non sustainable, subscription software is/can be. Since every up-front price has an equivalent value to a certain ongoing permanent flow, this is nonsense. Now, it may be that the price/quality ratio the market supports with the will support with up-front pricing is too low for the downstream support expected while the subscription price that is supported is greater.
sempron64 7y ago
They did not expect updates or little fixes for software bought on a disk. What mostly broke that are necessary security updates for exploits, and newer platforms (Windows 7+ and Mac OS a little bit, but mostly mobile platforms) becoming unstable due to system updates. Most users still do not expect or want updates of any kind, they are pushed due to externalities (occasionally in the users best interest, e.g. security, and occasionally not, e.g. random corporately motivated redesigns)

JustSomeNobody 7y ago

In fairness it wasn’t always like this. People used to buy a box copy of SW for a fair price. then software shops started offering the $.99 app when app stores got into vogue. Now they want to migrate everyone to subscription models.

giobox 7y ago
The definition of “mass market” changed hugely too from the shelved box software era to app stores, so much so that I’m not even sure how fair it is to compare anymore. I’d argue that the majority of customers in the software market didn’t really evolve with the distribution model; phones arguably just expanded distribution to a great many people who previously weren’t software customers of any kind or rarely made software purchases at all (beyond that which came for “free” on their devices), many of whom appear to think paying for software in any fashion is almost unthinkable.
- JustSomeNobody 7y ago
  > many of whom appear to think paying for software in any fashion is almost unthinkable. I still don't see how the fault lies with the customer. Look at all the software they get to use for free or cheap because the software shops made it available for free (with ads) or cheap ($.99 apps). This is not the customer's fault; they were trained to think this way.
scarface74 7y ago
People didn’t buy software - they pirated it. Businesses bought software.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> The mass market is use to paying little up front and expect updates and fixes forever for that one time fee which of course is non sustainable, subscription software is/can be. Since every up-front price has an equivalent value to a certain ongoing permanent flow, this is nonsense. Now, it may be that the price/quality ratio the market supports with the will support with up-front pricing is too low for the downstream support expected while the subscription price that is supported is greater.

sempron64 7y ago

They did not expect updates or little fixes for software bought on a disk. What mostly broke that are necessary security updates for exploits, and newer platforms (Windows 7+ and Mac OS a little bit, but mostly mobile platforms) becoming unstable due to system updates. Most users still do not expect or want updates of any kind, they are pushed due to externalities (occasionally in the users best interest, e.g. security, and occasionally not, e.g. random corporately motivated redesigns)