The model of 'updates come with the license' to many users means several negative things, imo...as an end user this is my collected personal thoughts and those I've seen in which I had no influence on the ideas people were putting out in regards to the 'always updating' software model with many people have adopted as of late:

1.) In terms of software used for productivity, upgrades actually interfere with working. Some software updates so frequently that it actually begins to cost the user money for time lost from updating. While Xara doesn't seem to be extremely frivolous with updates, it is a concern of users.
2.) Updates constantly can also mean instability of familiarity. If tools are constantly in flux, and more frequently changed, they become harder to effectively learn and ultimately master. To put it another way, if my watercolor brushes were changing each time I started a piece, I'm not sure how good I'd ever get at using them since there would be something changed each time.
3.) Updates sometimes feel like a license for the software company to get paid before they've finished/finalized their product. For early access and known early access, that's okay. The idea is known on both sides of the cash register. However, some software companies use the subscription model to beta test without telling their subscribers they're using software that knowingly is incomplete and may contain serious issues. There's sadly no guarntee of fully boxed software being complete and finalized any more as a result..a lot of consumer confidence in software companies has vaporized.
4.) Updates mean that at some point, the software purchased may not work on the system it was intended for. I have personal friends who have experienced this, as feature creep and memory usage through years of updates has rendered the same computer which used to run the software at sufficient speeds now chugs to load and and update display and perform tasks. This feeds a little bit off of point number 2.

Here are things that SHOULD be in subscription service:
1.) Finalized software released only bug tested internally as much as humanly possible. The cost should come stability not instability.
2.) Access to *extensions* to clip art gallery...i.e. all currently available and those which are to be made available during subscription time are available to subscriber...and when subscription runs out, all that they had access to is theirs, NEW stuff is not. For those worried about 'short subscriptions' just to get access to everything now and then, limit subscripion times to no shorter than 6 months if you have to, or simply provide subscription with 'buy in' surcharge to keep access (i.e. use a normal sales model instead of subscription... )
3.) Direct customer support. One of the things that people are seeing right through with more 'respected' companies who shall not be named is that for 'official support', they tend to consist of other users who aren't even getting paid to help anyone and aren't even obligated to. As far as I can tell, this is fraud. It's one thing to say that the community is supportive, it's another thing to sell a product guaranteeing that support to be there when in reality there is no one guaranteed to do anything as no contracts have obligated anyone to do anything.
4.) Legitimate bug fix access...not features, but real bug fixes to make the version of the program with it's advertised feature list work as advertised originally. Most of us don't buy software because 'it might be something someday'...we pay because it has what we want right now...

I don't hate the subscription model when it has legitimate uses and services associated with it. I was always of the mindset that value came not from what the software does, but the support staff and stability of it. That was the reason to shop from 'the big boys'...they had call centers and technicians who can help you and the bedroom programmer was just one guy and maybe doesn't even care or know how to do service industry type customer care. This goes for access to special "NON ESSENTIAL" type things that don't hinder the operation of the software. For instance, some companies have made it so that unless you pay every month, you cannot use software every month. This is absolutely terrible. When a large company that has already been accepted as industry standard attempts to rob it's customer base and the industry at large, it's very concerning. At this moment in time, I think polling and data on subscription software starts becoming a self fullfilling prophecy...it supports itself statistically because there ARE no other options, not because people are choosing to embrace it....

Just my two cents. I've been told to pipe down about 'business' stuff before, but one thing i see across the board is lip service to acting like the customer matters and actions that yell 'you don't matter to us at all, just shut up while we take your wallet and give you junk in it's place'. Also, there's clear evidence that you can make a perfect program and then proceed to undo it into less that workable again...which is another reason to not promise endless updates with no clear goal or ideas.



Quote Originally Posted by katemoir View Post
browj2 and csehz, thanks for raising the error 500 shop issue, big apologies for that - the shop devs are working to resolve it asap. You're right, the purchase actually goes thru Ok and the Update Service is extended, but that is far from obvious.

So far as the pricing goes, the cost of all Designer Pro upgrades was increased last September, 2016, after discussions with Magix. Before that the price had indeed been the same for many years, and therein lies the problem - since the cost of producing continuous updates to features and content, in multiple languages and more frequently than before, has not remained the same. So the price for renewing your Update Service after expiry is the same as upgrades to 365 since last September, although there is a discount for upgrades before expiry. You can see details for pre-expiry here http://www.xara.com/expiring/designer-pro/ and post-expiry here http://www.xara.com/expired/designer-pro/. Update Service renewals for Photo & Graphic Designer and Web Designer Premium currently remain the same cost as upgrades at the launch of 365 last year.

Several of you have mentioned the search feature in the Designs Gallery of v11. Yes that is one way of searching your Content if you don't renew, but just a heads up - the Designs Gallery search has not worked properly for quite a long time, certainly not in v11 (keywords in any relatively new content are not being picked up), we only finally resolved the issue by moving search into the OCC.

I'm really sorry to see that many of you are still not convinced by the Update Service model, and we continue to listen to and weigh up all the feedback both + and -. But do always bear in mind that you don't have to renew until you see enough updates to make it worthwhile for you personally. And of course your software does not disappear completely if you do not renew, as in the Adobe model!