I think you're probably right.
My guess is that the number of users who upgrade has been diminishing over the last few versions. That means less upgrade money. Putting everyone on a subscription plan means regular, consistent income even as the product matures. It puts less pressure on each new version to add "wow" features that make users willing to shell out upgrade money. If it catches on it eventually allows Avid to lower development costs and go into a "harvest" mode of sitting back and making money on what will be a mature product.
But, it could backfire. There will be some who subscribe, and think nothing of it. But there will be a large number who will balk at upgrading. And others will balk at buying new hardware that essentially forces you to pay a subscription fee until you can completely amortize it.
To me, it seems like Avid is betting the farm on this subscription model. We'll see how it plays out. I know I won't be a subscriber, but I'm not their target customer.
Dean
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Denton
What is, again, my opinion only...
The only reason for PT 12 is to kill PT 11, and more especially, those PT 11 licenses that were sold before the service plan model went into effect.
Killing PT 11 will also "kill" the last bit of Avid's accounting issues...
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