The State Of Paying For Software

from the all-depends-on-your-interpretation dept

The push towards "service-based" pricing for software has clearly been moving forward over the last few years, but that doesn't mean everyone's happy with it. Macrovision, makers of copy protection software designed for software licensing (so, not quite an unbiased party in this horse race) has a new study out saying that most companies still prefer traditional "perpetual" licensing, even though, other news articles focus more on the trend suggesting that most will move to service fees over licensing by 2006. It seems that, honestly, companies are more willing to pay subscription fees when the software is web-based -- and it feels more like a service. You know it's being updated and the company you're paying is actually doing something related to the software you're using. Where it seems to make people uncomfortable is when these "service fees" are really just "forced upgrade fees." Of course, as we found out with Intuit, even a "perpetual license" may not really be so perpetual once they suddenly turn off features without any real reason.

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