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by tzikis
3532 days ago
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It's a combination of all the above factors. People naturally overvalue physical goods and their cost to make, while under-valuing virtual goods (you're willing to pay for a $10 coffee with a 95% profit margin than a $5 Monthly subscription) In the Maker movement, people gladly buy an Arduino with a 75% markup (the final cost is 3-4X the cost of making it), but they wouldn't pay for an IDE, or a library etc. It's also true that there are many things aiming for your hard-earned money so people are reluctant to go ahead. And then of course, there's the competition. With the Arduino IDE (and now Arduino Create) being available for free given Arduino's business model (make money from H/W), Makers aren't incentivized to pay, in fact they (naturally?) expect other things to be free as well |
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One of those is $10, the other costs infinity dollars.
There's a large, and IMO underappreciated, amount of friction involved in subscription payment plans, given how often people are trying to get customers to sign up for them.
I'd buy a $50 tool more or less on impulse. A $10 or even $5/mo subscription is something I'd need to think over, not even because of the cost, but because I know it's something I'm going to have to deal with later on -- it means another place that I need to remember to update my credit card number whenever it gets changed, another thing that I might have to deal with the hassle of canceling later... overall, beyond the potential for the costs to add up over time, it's the construction of an ongoing relationship when all I wanted as a consumer was a sort of "one night stand".
Lots of vendors are looking for commitment from their customers, and I think a lot of potential customers are getting tired of it. Subscription business models are attractive for obvious reasons on the vendor side, but I wonder how many drive-by customers they pass up.