Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
This is pretty much the same argument that was made by many when we announced our model. That updates would be unstable. Its an incorrect one since updates in this system are typically far smaller and have much less risk of errors than you would get if you bought a new version. The same applies to MS. In fact they have been releasing smaller updates for many years - every week has windows updates after all and it doesn't break anything 99.9 percent of the time. With this model they will be far more responsive than before when you had to wait months for a service pack.
Huge difference.... CW lets you pay it out without credit so that you own a license at some point, not a rental like Adobe and now MS.
Today, as people retire or whatever, and can no longer work, they still have an older machine to use.
With their new model, people that move to a fixed income will be forced to do without and go back to paper and pen pretty much, or use an ancient, unstable and unsecured machine.
MS isn't moving into a charity line of business, they are moving into a new way to get more shares, and keep what they have in a new age they are helping to create for themselves only.
They are simply greasing the pocket the wallets in, not just the wallet itself now!
Notice it's not the players in heavily competitive sections of the field.... it's Adobe and MS .... those that don't really have real alternatives and competition in existence atm.
And no company or individuals needs to stockpile 80 billion dollars and still fight to pile more.
Immorally stacking mountains of greed is killing us all slowly.
Yes other photo and video fx programs are out there, but at this point none touch Adobe' suite.
Same with the OS market.... and it may breed great competition, and awesome updates, in the future, but years means so little to those with limited and fixed income now.
There's no comparison to CW's payment plan at all, who also are not here to be a charity.
They have also shifted the game with offering a third-option, while helping themselves, and accessing and expanding part of their customer base with a wider consumer footprint, not a wider corporate boot.
The only thing comparable is the "faith and hope" in the promise of "more better later"!
But Cakewalk don't stick you if you even feel they aren't holding up their end .. you can walk away and still have something in your hand to show for your long hours of picking noses for someone else.
It always takes a degree of faith in something to allow cash to be pryed out of anyone's hand, any time, for anything, but when your only option is to offer things like updates that were once free and an on-going stream of faster fixes, unseen new content and add-ons, you better bring one big bertha pry-bar. lol
I'm glad Cakewalk is innovative, and steadily carving off a chunk of their market for themselves, and using bigger and badder chainsaws doing it, but they can't compare to corporate-hog MS under Bill Gate's domination.
CW is user-driven from the start, and as a company, they seem to like it that way.
More like NASCAR than Golf ... they are part of the music-community crowd, not on the other side of ropes.
That's gold to me.
CW now introduced a new option to the subscription model, and practically relies on their own unseen content and product development for their own future and reputation.
They not only put themselves on the line, but also offers a legitimate "out" to their users ... take your ball as-is and go home if you wish, ... and if they have that much faith in their company, no matter who holds the brand, then I have faith in them as well, as people.
Maybe one day long after Gates, MS might change..... but I have no faith in them at this point not to charge "per bounce", every time we play with our balls. lol.