I’ve always thought that providing Software as a Service (SaaS) was an interesting idea. You build a product and, rather than charging a one-time fee for installation, charge a monthly or annual subscription for continued updates and operations. It makes sense from a business standpoint, and there are certain aspects of it that appeal to customers as well. For one, continuous updates mean you don’t have to worry about re-installing new versions.
This makes particular sense with anti-virus software. New bugs appear on the market every day, so having a direct line to the geniuses who fix them is valuable to any computer user. At the same time, certain products like Norton Antivirus can be expensive and make consumers think twice about whether or not they really need that advanced protection.
I’ve personally been a Norton customer for years. I started out with a free subscription in college and started paying to keep it up after graduation. There were lapses, sure. There were always times when I needed the money for more vital, timely things like gas, but an out-dated version of Norton was better than nothing at all. I’d let my subscription lapse by a month at most, but the anti-virus protection and firewall still worked their magic in the background … they just complained that they wanted updates.
Towards the end of last month, my current subscription to Norton expired. At the moment, I’m not able to re-up my subscription, so I was looking forward to holding on to the most current updates I had until I could afford a new subscription. To my surprise (and horror!), the SaaS model for Norton has changed.
In the past, you were paying the subscription for updates. In the present, you pay the subscription just to maintain the operation of the software. Now that my subscription has expired, nothing works! I can’t run a virus scan. I can’t manage a firewall. When you open Norton, rather than the typical settings screen you see a splash screen reminding you to pay.
Once again, this model makes sense from a business perspective. But as a consumer – particularly in the midst of troubling economic times – it does nothing more than piss me off.
What other SaaS models are you aware of? Do they make the most sense for the business or for the consumer?
