Many companies always buy the latest-and-greatest anyway, so this model will just make it a lot easier for them to do the upgrades they were going to do anyway.
Companies that don't want to do it that way will just buy the packaged software like always.
HOW DARE MICROSOFT OFFER DIFFERENT TYPES OF LICENSES AND PRODUCTS!?!?
It seems that the incentive to upgrade Office or Windows is practically nill. Why? Office can do more than you need for the longest time. No new Office upgrades will make a user more productive than before.
I feel how Jobs put it, that people wont want to rent music. They want to own it forever. Microsoft is entering in era of transition to where it wants you to own nothing . As stated, there will be regular ownable software but I feel this will be tapered off in time to a more lucrative "rent only" type of software.
Think of it! Instead of just owning a PC with Windows and Office you have to pay your monthly fee to Microsoft, if not it will be shut down. Cant afford to pay it? Well, you gotta since everyone else uses Windows.
Making money from all those hordes of people that never upgrade their computer who just use Word, IE, Outlook, games and solitaire.
Ok, this post is a bit of a doomsday scenario which I hope never comes to pass. Groverat, it is true that new products and services are generally good for the consumer. Its just that Microsoft is using its monopolistic powers to do what it wants, consumers have little choice. It will not be as easy as people just not using Windows anymore, for most of the world that is not an option.
Lets extend a rent situation to another medium. Lets charge a rent on your TV. How you may say? You may have bought it, its chips, its electron gun, its wiring but do you own the design of the TV? Nope. Lets charge money on renting you the design of the system of electronics of your TV! Electronics, namely digital electronics is very much like code. It responds to different user interactions. If you can rent code why not rent electronic design?
That's ludicrous you say, to rent the design of electronics! Then I am glad you'll agree renting software is ludicrious too.
remember last year when MS tried to push their "license 6" ordeal toward corporations and failed miserably. Well, this could be on the same boat.
Nonetheless, I saw rentware coming. For many years, I have been paying subscription services for my antivirus program on my PC. It just seems to be the trend.
Then again, what else is there to innovate on the Office front? No new feature that are necessary. So everyone is happy with yesterday's Office. Therefore, rentware is the logical step for MS.
Then again, what else is there to innovate on the Office front? No new feature that are necessary. So everyone is happy with yesterday's Office.
I could think of a number of ways word processing could improve, but you used the word "innovate".
This is something M$ has never been very good at. All they would do with Office is just keep bolting on features in the hopes that that would make people want it (HTML editing?) for purposes other than word processing.
Supporting folks who use it (especially legal types who have hundreds of boilerplate paragraphs) shows that there is room for radical innovations.
But back to renting...
Why do I see M$ becoming a slumlord over something that will continue to fall apart in time?
As long as renting doesn't become the primary way to get Office / Windows, I don't see a problem. What if you are a person/business that only needs the latest version of Office to communicate with a client that is using it. What if the job for that client only lasts 6 months? Why not rent it for 6 months rather than pay the full price?
What if you are a Mac-only shop with a couple of Linux PCs? What if you need Windows to run a specific program for a month? Why not rent Windows for a month?
It's only a bad idea if they make it their primary business model. If the *only* way to get Windows or Office is to rent it, that's bad news.
Comments
Originally posted by Aurora
Just like renting anything you are pissing your $$$ away. I would rather own. Microsoft is screwing up again.
Microsoft? Screw up? Never happen...
I have the feeling Microsoft will do a slow enough transition to all rentware just slow enough that no one notices or complains en mass.
Companies that don't want to do it that way will just buy the packaged software like always.
HOW DARE MICROSOFT OFFER DIFFERENT TYPES OF LICENSES AND PRODUCTS!?!?
I feel how Jobs put it, that people wont want to rent music. They want to own it forever. Microsoft is entering in era of transition to where it wants you to own nothing . As stated, there will be regular ownable software but I feel this will be tapered off in time to a more lucrative "rent only" type of software.
Think of it! Instead of just owning a PC with Windows and Office you have to pay your monthly fee to Microsoft, if not it will be shut down. Cant afford to pay it? Well, you gotta since everyone else uses Windows.
Making money from all those hordes of people that never upgrade their computer who just use Word, IE, Outlook, games and solitaire.
Ok, this post is a bit of a doomsday scenario which I hope never comes to pass. Groverat, it is true that new products and services are generally good for the consumer. Its just that Microsoft is using its monopolistic powers to do what it wants, consumers have little choice. It will not be as easy as people just not using Windows anymore, for most of the world that is not an option.
Lets extend a rent situation to another medium. Lets charge a rent on your TV. How you may say? You may have bought it, its chips, its electron gun, its wiring but do you own the design of the TV? Nope. Lets charge money on renting you the design of the system of electronics of your TV! Electronics, namely digital electronics is very much like code. It responds to different user interactions. If you can rent code why not rent electronic design?
That's ludicrous you say, to rent the design of electronics! Then I am glad you'll agree renting software is ludicrious too.
Nonetheless, I saw rentware coming. For many years, I have been paying subscription services for my antivirus program on my PC. It just seems to be the trend.
Then again, what else is there to innovate on the Office front? No new feature that are necessary. So everyone is happy with yesterday's Office. Therefore, rentware is the logical step for MS.
Thank goodness for OpenOffice!
Microsoft's "Live" is D.O.A
http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-592...8240&subj=news
Originally posted by kmok1
Then again, what else is there to innovate on the Office front? No new feature that are necessary. So everyone is happy with yesterday's Office.
I could think of a number of ways word processing could improve, but you used the word "innovate".
This is something M$ has never been very good at. All they would do with Office is just keep bolting on features in the hopes that that would make people want it (HTML editing?) for purposes other than word processing.
Supporting folks who use it (especially legal types who have hundreds of boilerplate paragraphs) shows that there is room for radical innovations.
But back to renting...
Why do I see M$ becoming a slumlord over something that will continue to fall apart in time?
This isn't much more rediculous than renting an Avid rig for your company.
Yeah it is.
Let me give you the argument that will convince you:
M1Cr0$h4ft! LOLZ!
Bulletproof.
What if you are a Mac-only shop with a couple of Linux PCs? What if you need Windows to run a specific program for a month? Why not rent Windows for a month?
It's only a bad idea if they make it their primary business model. If the *only* way to get Windows or Office is to rent it, that's bad news.