Just Released: A New Version of Web Designer

[pauland]

I cannot see the issue with leaving the system as it is regarding re-licencing online in the case of a crash or config change...

Currently Xara knows what version of the software you are licenced to use, so there's no problem giving you access to it and the latest updated version.

With a one-year subscription model that is not attached to the lifetime of a specific release, keeping track of the right version to give access to is going to be more problematic, because whether a user is entitled or not to which version now depends on when their subscription ended/ends.

Xara, I'm guessing, is looking to cut-off updates when the subscription ends and offer the major release version during that period without any updates. That would be quite like the system they have now, except that the post major release updates are no longer available.

The equitable thing is to offer the last update before the subscription ends. To do this they would need to keep track of every minor release and deliver the last version that was available before the subscription ends. The cost of administering that may prove too expensive.

What Xara don't want to do is encourage people to leave gaps between subscription periods - this could hurt their bottom line.

Xara sees subscriptions as an added benefit for users that have an active subscription - early access to new features. Users also see the downside if a subscription lapses - you could be locked out from a bug fix or feature that you rely on.

I can see the problem from both sides. Naturally Adobe doesn't have this problem (stop paying, stop using)!

At one stage (no longer) Adobe was offering the traditional buy the product and the subscription option at the same time.

This is not as straightforward as it looks. Fairness is one thing, profitability for Xara is the other.