I’ve always thought that software should be sold based on how businesses want to consume it. Ok, that’s not exactly true as 1) I’ve only been on this usable mission for the last two years and 2) most people want to step-up to the business software smorgasbord and feast for nothing.
Ok, so what do I really mean? I mean that pricing software has typically been an inside-out approach based on a cost-plus model or, even worse, a “how-much-can-you-afford?” model. Typically how this all ends-up is that customers feel frustrated over the notion that what they want and need isn’t delivered to them in a way that makes sense for them. How would you feel if you wanted a can of diet coke and were told that you had to purchase it in 64 gallon quantities and consume it on the spot? Well a lot of software is sold the same way.
So, as part of some research on existing pricing for one of my products, I see this post and it completely captures what I’ve always felt and stated but with the weight of a better-organized article.
Web 2.0 technologies adoption, open-source software, and new services-based software are all changing the way software is discovered, trialed, and eventually consumed. My quest for solutions that satisfy the B>E equation is heavily influenced by this common inbalance between software pricing/licensing and how users want to consume it. Now we’ll have to contend with solutions that not only are consumed differently but produced differently and with significantly different cost basis.
