Software to contribute 10% of John Deere revenues by 2030 • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/12/deere_software_revenues/

You Have to Pay a Subscription to Use Pantone Colors in Photoshop Now | PetaPixel

https://petapixel.com/2022/10/28/you-have-to-pay-a-subscription-to-use-pantone-colors-in-photoshop-now/

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price

>Mercedes intentionally limited performance to later sell as an optional extra

I hope this model fails miserably.

A similar model has worked for cameras. Often the basic electronics in the cheaper cameras are the same as in the next level up, but features are turned off in firmware.

The response has been that people reverse engineer it and have custom firmware you can flash your camera with. I wonder if the car companies will be able to prevent that.

And this is much worse than the BMW seat thing. BMW has two options - one-time charge for heated seats or subscription. If you like to turn your car over every 3 years, subscription might be the way to go. This is ridiculous as there is no version of the car that does not have the capability that you are subscribing for.

Note also, the link that RC posted a few days ago about brand reliability showed Mercedes has the worst reliability of any brand. I don't know anything about the auto industry. Are they circling the drain?

QuoteNote also, the link that RC posted a few days ago about brand reliability showed Mercedes has the worst reliability of any brand. I don't know anything about the auto industry. Are they circling the drain?

For the price of a Mercedes I would expect it to be a lot more reliable and I would not expect them to be playing Yugo games with performance and subscriptions.

IMHO, Mercedes has not come out with an iconic looking car in decades. You used to know when a Mercedes drove past.  They have succeeded in looking like Toyota's for three times the price and less reliability.

>reverse engineer

Not for long....

New cybersecurity measures are locking aftermarket tuners out of car systems | TechSpot

https://www.techspot.com/news/96780-new-cybersecurity-measures-locking-aftermarket-tuners-out-oem.html


>Mercedes has the worst reliability

There was an article posted here a few months ago that said the entertainment systems and other electronic convenience items were the top reasons vehicles were being hauled to the dealers for servicing.  Debbie suspects that is a large part of Mercedes' reliability complaints as they are bristling with do-dads. That, and their self-pampering customer base may be more prone to complaining.

Polestar 2 gets an over-the-air performance boost 'without the hassle of a subscription' - The Verge

(SCREW THAT: The EV company is offering a 68 horsepower upgrade to customers for a one-time fee of $1,195)

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/6/23495253/polestar-2-performance-ota-upgrade-software-subscription

Your Wallet Is Being Drained by Subscriptions. Wall Street Thanks You.

Quote
But even as investors have become wary of companies stuck on similar marketing treadmills, burning through investors' cash to create the illusion of popularity, subscription spending has become stickier since the pandemic arrived.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/spending-on-subscriptions-average-11670529385

(Paywall, but if you search on the title and come in from search, you get a freebie)

What are you all doing?

We informally have an "add one, drop one" approach.

I just dropped the Economist who make it really hard. You have to chat with someone and if you keep repeating "I don't want to discuss this, I just want to cancel," they feed you offers for 3-4 iterations until they finally cancel you, then they spam you with "satisfaction surveys" until you unsubscribe. It's enough that I vowed to put them in the blacklist.

It also makes me think that I should have four credit cards with rotating expiration dates and only subscribe with cards that expire within the year. Then I don't have to worry about auto-renew.

Realistically, I find most companies honorable with renewals. Economist is an exception. I haven't experienced such heavy-handed tactics in several years. I didn't realize BAD companies were still doing it.

>makes it hard

Didn't I post this?

This Apple trick lets you delete online accounts, finally

https://www.fastcompany.com/90824355/apple-simple-trick-delete-online-accounts

QuoteThen I remembered Apple—or a little-known directive that Apple mandated upon iOS developers this past June.

The Apple directive decreed that starting on June 30, 2022, any iPhone or iPad app that allowed a user to create an account inside of it must also allow the user to easily delete their account and all associated data. This mandate applied even if the app user did not use the app to create their account and instead created their account on the web.

And—voilà—I suddenly had an easy way to delete those stubborn accounts. I downloaded the iOS app of any website or web account I could find that hadn't provided an easy or clear way for me to request account deletion online. And when I opened the apps on my iPhone and navigated to the settings of my account in the app—there before me was the glorious "Delete Account" button. And just like that, I was able to erase the accounts and all associated data from nearly 90% of the sites that hadn't offer an easy way to do this on the web.

+

>What are you all doing?

IIRC, I don't have any subscriptions other than Prime and Prime pays for itself in gift shipping to kids & grandkids.  Louise has a half-dozen or so (NYT, Pandora, NFL, grandkid sports tracking, word games, tv streams) but she's mindful of the accumulating price. All-in-all, she tries to keep it in the price range of the old cable package --but there is some $-creep.  I write it off as entertainment for post-retirement and pandemic cabin fever.

>>I don't have any subscriptions

If I really, really start to look at it, we have a lot. For example...

- Theresa's TSA Pre subscription is ending. It's "only" $70 for five years, but there it is.
- domains
- VPS
- fundamentally, my utilities are subscription services.
- so is car insurance and homeowner's insurance
- for "media" we "only" have Audible (which we are about to cancel), Netflix (which I actually keep partly for my dad who is on our subscription), and NYT (which we cancelled then restarted under Theresa's name for the $2/week deal).
- Starlink and Hughesnet and the Speedify service that makes them work together as a bonded connection
- Zoom for Theresa's business
- Google Workspace for Theresa's business and for our rental because I genuinely like GMail better than anything else I've used.

I even have my toilet paper on subscription from Who Gives a Crap (50% of profits go to building toilets in places that don't have them).

Admittedly, the toilet paper is fundamentally different. I actually *own* the toilet paper. But in the other cases, these are all payments for ephemeral services that I lose 100% as soon as I stop paying, which to me is the distinction between a subscription and owning something.

Utilities might strike you as odd, but actually maybe half the people I know *own* their water and sewer infrastructure. They have a well and a septic. Yes, there are ongoing costs and I don't necessarily want to own those things, but it is basically a subscription as far as I'm concerned.

Whether you use it or not....

GM makes OnStar add-on mandatory, including $1,500 fee • The Register

https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/11/gm_makes_onstar_addon_mandatory/

Quote from: rcjordan on October 28, 2022, 10:52:00 PM
You Have to Pay a Subscription to Use Pantone Colors in Photoshop Now | PetaPixel

https://petapixel.com/2022/10/28/you-have-to-pay-a-subscription-to-use-pantone-colors-in-photoshop-now/

Trying to make this computer with a legacy lifetime Adobe subscription last as long as I do, though rolling the dice sometimes by putting it in the luggage when I travel.

One big thing with subscriptions is the friction upfront is much higher than it is given credit for unless people think they can dip in and out of it easily. It is easier to sell something for say $80 than it is to sell a $7 a month recurring subscription. This also has implications for affiliates.

Some merchants who provided lifetime recurring splits on affiliate driven sales eventually see the affiliate channel slow down as the core brand rise, which in turn has them go through with opening up a second affiliate channel on a different platform as pretext for needing to simplify the affiliate channel by nixing the legacy one so they can scrub out those recurring affiliate payments.

Restaurants experiment with subscription models to keep revenue flowing | PBS NewsHour

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/restaurants-experiment-with-subscription-models-to-keep-revenue-flowing