Alternative business models for commercial software

[slitchfield]

Until now, commercial software has generally been based around the traditional business model of selling a product directly to the user. Piracy is seen as a threat to this business model, and many commercial publishers have responded to this with various kinds of DRM, but are there alternatives to the model which could make piracy irrelevant? Krisse takes a look at some candidates...

Read on in the full article.

[Ammar_Dento]

Nice talking...but people go for pirates for something they can do nothing about...like they dont have the way to pay...in many countries there is no master card or pay pal...etc.
in many countries the price of 10$ is just like free...while in other countries the 10$ is really expensive.
for me..in Iraq no problem about the price but the methods of paying is limited to master card...the pay pal will be hacked...i assure it.

[davidmaxwaterma]

I find this comment a little disingenuous :

> Advertising money comes from products we buy, so their prices have to be slightly higher to cover the cost of the advertising.

While it's true that advertising costs money and so the money has to come from somewhere. It all depends on who pays for the cost of the advertising and the effect. If the advertising increases the sales volume so that it more than covers the costs, then the price can come *down*.

[svdwal]

... I do not see the standard business model being dead. Get your four P's right and people will come.

What the Symbian space needs right now is an AppStore that copies Apple's one bit for bit on it's good points and improve on its weak points. It's as simple as that.

[davidmaxwaterma]

I think advertising is a great way to take cheap content to market. This is because the income due to advertising is much closer to 'cheap', and also that it would make it *very* easy for users to pay (ie they just allow themselves to be exposed to an advert) and for producers to collect (single place to collect the money from (Nokia?)).

Note that users aren't willing to use credit cards or sign up for payment services just to buy something that costs $0.99.

It's all in the implementation as to whether it is successful or not...if they can present the adverts without offending the user (on such a small screen).

The standard model is not dead at all. Check out Apple's AppStore.

[Hardeep1singh]

App store is nothing but an improved copy of Nokia Download!, now matter how successful it becomes in macworld, this strategy can never work for symbian.

Symbian devices are preferred by techies whereas an Average Joe is more likely to fall for an iphone, the chances of an average joe getting his hands on cracked iphone apps is much lesser than a techie getting his hands on cracked symbian stuff.

I guess that's the reason why Apple's app store has become so successful while the original Nokia Download! still stands neglected by everyone.

[bartmanekul]

Originally Posted by Hardeep1singh

App store is nothing but an improved copy of Nokia Download!, now matter how successful it becomes in macworld, this strategy can never work for symbian.

Symbian devices are preferred by techies whereas an Average Joe is more likely to fall for an iphone, the chances of an average joe getting his hands on cracked iphone apps is much lesser than a techie getting his hands on cracked symbian stuff.

I guess that's the reason why Apple's app store has become so successful while the original Nokia Download! still stands neglected by everyone.

I have to say I disagree. The apple appstore might follow the same line as Nokia download, apart from that its worlds apart.

For starters whats available on Nokia download is absoloutly tiny compared to whats actually out there.

Add to that its impossible to actually search download for what you want, its just badly categorised.

I for one, would use download (and buy apps) from it, if it was usable.