Trust the 'support' from autodesk is virtually non existant. Also in the years since 'subscription' came out, on the civil side we have seen at best ONE 'extention' to the product each year. Now last year was different because they bought Inteli-solve and issued TWO extensions that were really only ONE that they shipped in two pieces.
Subscription is a scam to generate revenue stream period. It is not for or about serving the customer.
Make the product better, give us compelling new tools and features that actually function and we will buy the product without being forced into it. Make the product better and there will not be a need for strongarming the customer into the purchase, in fact we will be begging for it at any price,if you make the product better.
Stop putting it in a shiny new wrapper, and or changing the file format and telling us that it's new.
The new interface costs productivity, and the format change is just a tool to force users to upgrade because autodesk can't or wont design the product to be fully compatible with itself.
You are correct ... subscription is all about generating a revenue stream. That is how we approach it, that is how many other companies approach it.
I suppose I could follow the lead of a few developers I know ... the software costs a certain amount of money, regardless. If you have V3 and you want V4, you pay the same as the guy who doesn't have V3. But then that wouldn't be considered fair practice either.
We have asked hundreds of clients what they felt would be the best method for them to have software provided. Many of them prefer subscription because in the long run it tends to be less expensive and they are always using the latest version. I suppose on the flip side is whether or not the client prefers to pay a little each year as opposed to a lump sum every few years. Many find the annual payments to be better and easier on the bottom line than a lump sum payment.
But then, if you were tasked to create a business model that protected the financial interests of a software vendor, while providing a useful product at a reasonable price, what would you do ... because we spent many days and weeks through trial and error to come up with a pricing scheme that we believe is fair, and according to many of our clients, fair to our clients.
The bottom line is that software is a tool that helps you do your job. Without it, you could likely still do it, albeit at a much slower pace. Thus the software makes you more productive. It is the ROI that you must look at to determine the value you are receiving. In the case of our software, the client has can have a 100% ROI after using the package just once.
