Mindjet MindManager

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 9, 2012 at 05:17 PM

There is a clear paradigm shift in the software business model, driven by Google and other web services, from purchase to subscription-driven. With Microsoft moving its Office suite to such a pay-as-you-go system, programs that have long been ‘attached’ to Office, including MindManager, are bound to follow.

Jeremy Rifkin spoke of this years ago in The Age Of Access, calling it the ‘end of ownership’.

From the client business’s perspective the move makes sense, as there are less upfront costs. In the current state of the economy worldwide, it also makes sense for individual users.

I’m not sure how good this news is for the developers of much of the classic software we discuss here. As more people are exposed to software as a service (SAAS), purchased-license-driven software may become less accessible. Let’s see how Neville/Surfulater does.

The move is supposed to bring in more steady/predictable growth to the SAAS business; yet when upfront costs are less, clients may more easily decide to change to another service after a while.