Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Rant Time: Subscription-Based Software for Mobile Devices
Posted by Darius Wey in "THOUGHT" @ 01:00 AM
"The functionality in the software is great, and the software is completely, 100% subscription based. But not all functionality seems to be working ok. And the one failing right now is the one that manages the subscription."
Mauricio, over at Geekzone, recently had a bit of trouble with WorldMate for Smartphones, and funnily enough, the problem was with the portion of the program which manages the subscription. As a result, he posted on his thoughts, and I had a bit of a chuckle reading it, because I largely agree with what he says.
In my world, I also use subscription-based software (namely, Epocrates Essentials for my medical work - and subscription doesn't come cheap either)! Although I've not really had a problem with the subscription side of things, I'm not a huge advocate of it, nor am I a rebel to the cause. There's a time and place for everything, and as Mauricio has stated, subscriptions should be "done in an easy way for both the user and the distributor", yet unfortunately, this principle does not always exist. If I had my way, I'd love to be able to just pay once and not have to worry about renewing my subscription every year. But we all know that this will never be the case for every single software title out there. So I'll cut the ranting and let you decide. Although Mauricio's problem was with the Smartphone edition of WorldMate, such problems can also exist on the Pocket PC, which is why I decided to post on the issue here at Pocket PC Thoughts to see where the community stands on the issue. I've set up a poll, so if you care to provide a bit of input, please choose the most appropriate poll option, and feel free to leave a comment.
Mauricio, over at Geekzone, recently had a bit of trouble with WorldMate for Smartphones, and funnily enough, the problem was with the portion of the program which manages the subscription. As a result, he posted on his thoughts, and I had a bit of a chuckle reading it, because I largely agree with what he says.
In my world, I also use subscription-based software (namely, Epocrates Essentials for my medical work - and subscription doesn't come cheap either)! Although I've not really had a problem with the subscription side of things, I'm not a huge advocate of it, nor am I a rebel to the cause. There's a time and place for everything, and as Mauricio has stated, subscriptions should be "done in an easy way for both the user and the distributor", yet unfortunately, this principle does not always exist. If I had my way, I'd love to be able to just pay once and not have to worry about renewing my subscription every year. But we all know that this will never be the case for every single software title out there. So I'll cut the ranting and let you decide. Although Mauricio's problem was with the Smartphone edition of WorldMate, such problems can also exist on the Pocket PC, which is why I decided to post on the issue here at Pocket PC Thoughts to see where the community stands on the issue. I've set up a poll, so if you care to provide a bit of input, please choose the most appropriate poll option, and feel free to leave a comment.
