A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy • Hacker News Board

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#91

Post by BuleBule » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 3:40 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #51

Interesting take on it. For historical accuracy this was something that Sun talked about in the 90's, you sold someone some software, and that was the last bit of revenue you ever got from them. Except you still had the programmers who wrote the software to pay. This then is the fundamental problem, when you finish the software do you fire the engineers that worked on it? If not, what do they do? The fact is that sof…

You divined my thoughts exactly Sir. As others have expressed in this conversation, we lament the rent seeking world.

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#92

Post by BuleBule » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 3:56 AM UTC

BuleBule wrote: post #84

Glyptodon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe users like to whine but ultimately they're more likely to give up their firstborn child than switch products they're so attached to the Adobe tools and ecosystem. And I'm not sure the upper tier of users who are kind of setting the standard is all that price sensitive to begin with. I'm sure they lose hobbyists. But I don't think there are enough defectors to change the bottom line of their de-facto monopoly on…

True.

Although I would like to expand on my true if I may. The dribble of defectors to the completion fuels a virtous cycle, I myself migrated to Pixelmator (I have little use for vector as a marketer) and since then I have seen its capabilities jump.

I like to think those capabilities jumped because the new influx of Adobe refugees provided them with enough revenue to supplement their dev team. Or am I wrong?

I would argue that the more psychos in the market, the better for startups and I am quite comfortable with that idea.

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#93

Post by B1FF_PSUVM » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 9:14 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #51

Interesting take on it. For historical accuracy this was something that Sun talked about in the 90's, you sold someone some software, and that was the last bit of revenue you ever got from them. Except you still had the programmers who wrote the software to pay. This then is the fundamental problem, when you finish the software do you fire the engineers that worked on it? If not, what do they do? The fact is that sof…

Plus, everybody and their dog want you to have a customer account with them - and cough up email or phone as id ...

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#94

Post by dennisgorelik » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 1:42 PM UTC

snuxoll wrote: post #19

samsolomon wrote: post #16

The case of Adobe is interesting. I think the move to a subscription model has been a hostile move for customers. The second you stop paying for the software, you lose the ability to open your old files. This has allowed smaller software applications such as Sketch, The Affinity Suite and Capture One to grab marketshare. I think Sketch’s current business model is perfect. Customers pay for a year of updates. If a cus…

While not perfect, I think JetBrains made an acceptable compromise with their new subscription licenses. Getting stuck with a 1-year-old version rather stinks if you decide to cancel, but you're never "stuck" without access to a product you rely on because you decided to stop paying.

We stopped using ReSharper (and paying for upgrades), so we never paid for that new subscription.

It was not pure fault of subscription model though. ReSharper became too slow in the recent years.

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#95

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 2:11 PM UTC

BuleBule wrote: post #90

dredmorbius wrote: post #80

This is a topic that could use a good article. This was not that article. It's one thing to rail about the varios psychotics or psychopathics of this that or another. That's not the same as understanding the dynamics through which a situation emerges. What's particularly disturbing is when it appears that the outcome is inevitable. I.F. Stone, writing in 1967 on the Arab-Israeli crisis: The essence of tragedy is a st…

I agree with you, this is a topic that could use a good article and as OP, I did not write it. My hope was that others would pick up the thread and run with it, thank you for pointing this out.

As a general suggestion: instead of looking for personality faults to explain some situation, look to systemic dynamics.

William R. Catton, Jr., has a concept he calls "futile vilification", short version: "There is no point to another morbid wringing of hands over mankind's alleged "greed" or immoral myopia."

Longer, quoted here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2v3251/william...

Donella Meadows has a concept of 12 leverage points. "Changing personnel" doesn't even rate mention.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points

The history of IBM, AT&T, and Xerox focusing on leasing rather than selling hardware is useful, as is a reading of the history of the publishing industry. Software is, in some ways, a development of that.

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#96

Post by BuleBule » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

yborg wrote: post #13

BuleBule wrote: post #2

This is a follow up to my previous article "To Catch A Liar: 1Password Edition" : https://medium.com/@guisebule/to-catch-a-liar-1password-edit...

Completely agree with your analysis, and at the same time cannot fault 1Password for doing this since they are in a position to do it. They are potentially a hundreds of million dollar acquisition if they juice those sub numbers. But they have to do this NOW, because what they are doing is not that difficult, and come the day, as it always does, that Google spies an attractive mechanism to drive more people into thei…

I had not considered this angle, thank you for commenting.

Re: A Critical Analysis of the Subscription Economy

#97

Post by BuleBule » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 2:47 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #95

BuleBule wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you, this is a topic that could use a good article and as OP, I did not write it. My hope was that others would pick up the thread and run with it, thank you for pointing this out.

As a general suggestion: instead of looking for personality faults to explain some situation, look to systemic dynamics. William R. Catton, Jr., has a concept he calls "futile vilification", short version: "There is no point to another morbid wringing of hands over mankind's alleged "greed" or immoral myopia." Longer, quoted here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2v3251/william... Donella Meadows has a c…

Ah, but nothing catches the eye or flares the nostrils as somebody calling somebody else a psycho :)

Thank you for this, I do intend to drill down into the subject a little more and this will make for good reading, as will this entire thread.