5 ms·

> It seems like every SaaS out there is targeting only the very occasional users and large enterprise users, but nothing in between. It's like that for everyth

> It seems like every SaaS out there is targeting only the very occasional users and large enterprise users, but nothing in between. It's like that for everything IT related. I've done part time IT service work for 20 years and in the last 5 years the cost of IT for small businesses has drastically increased. I'd estimate that things like email and network devices (management + updates) have increased by 5-10x for a lot of small businesses. Family run businesses that are providing income for 1 or 2 people can't absorb those kinds of costs. Imagine if every appliance in your house all of a sudden became an annual subscription that's the same amount as the one time cost used to be. That's what small business IT is like now. Normally I'd be optimistic and say all that means is a lot of opportunity for anyone that wants to start a business, but it's not. The high prices are being driven by consolidation and reduced competition in every area where there's some type of barrier to entry. Network devices are the best example. You can't decide to start a hardware manufacturing business without a ton of capital. It's only going to get worse too. My prediction is that within 2 years Ubiquiti will go subscription based, within 5 years Windows will be subscription only for business use, and getting a perpetual version of MS Office will be nearly impossible within the next 3-4 years. I also think both Microsoft and Google will discontinue their non-profit / education offerings by the end of the decade because all the budget friendly options (aka competitors) will be completely eliminated by then.

judge2020 5y ago
> I also think both Microsoft and Google will discontinue their non-profit / education offerings by the end of the decade Not going to happen because both of them are buying Mindshare: Microsoft is trying to salvage their staple of being a must-have requirement for office IT with Excel/other MS Office (including Office Online) dominance, while Google is trying to take all of that away and get people hooked on the power of collaborative document/spreadsheet editing, now with Notion-style features like inline people mentions. In general it seems like Google is winning in lower education with the advent of chromebooks, MS is winning on the higher education front (Uni staff don't want to move away from Office), and Google Workspace is winning on the Startup front, but I doubt either offerings are going to charge schools for their basic offerings and will instead opt to throw more new features into their own separately-subscribed SKUs (eg. Google Voice having a different per-user subscription cost).
antoniuschan99 5y ago
Cloud is inherently subscription based though. Packaged software like Windows can always survive with a one time fee. Hardware is interesting, there’s ongoing fees for the business if it’s connected hardware. However, almost all of them (b2c) charge a one time fee (IoT devices such as smart switches, security camera) and then charge a subscription for more advanced features or cloud storage (such as for the camera). Also, it’s definitely a lot easier to produce and sell hardware products now compared to before!

judge2020 5y ago

> I also think both Microsoft and Google will discontinue their non-profit / education offerings by the end of the decade Not going to happen because both of them are buying Mindshare: Microsoft is trying to salvage their staple of being a must-have requirement for office IT with Excel/other MS Office (including Office Online) dominance, while Google is trying to take all of that away and get people hooked on the power of collaborative document/spreadsheet editing, now with Notion-style features like inline people mentions. In general it seems like Google is winning in lower education with the advent of chromebooks, MS is winning on the higher education front (Uni staff don't want to move away from Office), and Google Workspace is winning on the Startup front, but I doubt either offerings are going to charge schools for their basic offerings and will instead opt to throw more new features into their own separately-subscribed SKUs (eg. Google Voice having a different per-user subscription cost).

antoniuschan99 5y ago

Cloud is inherently subscription based though. Packaged software like Windows can always survive with a one time fee. Hardware is interesting, there’s ongoing fees for the business if it’s connected hardware. However, almost all of them (b2c) charge a one time fee (IoT devices such as smart switches, security camera) and then charge a subscription for more advanced features or cloud storage (such as for the camera). Also, it’s definitely a lot easier to produce and sell hardware products now compared to before!