FeedDemon by Subscription?

Jul 7, 2005 15:59 · 186 words · 1 minute read

If you’ve ever been curious what people think about paying for a “subscription” to a desktop application, look no further than Nick Bradbury’s announcement that FeedDemon will move to a subscription model.

I’ve thought about this a bit myself, and one of the early commenters summarized my feelings on the subject well: something like internet-based synchronization (which NewsGator offers) is a *service* and charging that by subscription makes sense. Something like FeedDemon is a software *product* and you expect to be able to use that version of the product forever.

Expectations can certainly change. I know that Microsoft, which has saturated its main markets, is dying to hook everyone up on a subscription model. But, after 20 years of software-as-a-product purchasing, people need someone to come up with a good incentive to change.

I can certainly understand what NewsGator is driving at: they are setting themselves up as a services company and FeedDemon is one of their client tools. Makes good sense. They just need to figure out how to take care of the FeedDemon customers who weren’t angling for NewsGator’s services when they bought it.