Welcome again to JJNN for Sunday August 31st, 2008. Today we will be taking about a new way to buy software.
I remember way back in the day when software was all on floppy disks that were over 5 inches on one side. Since than software has gone to slightly smaller disks, to optical data like CDs and DVDs. It has been interesting to watch how companies have used the media of the day to sell software.
The latest version of this is talked about in this article. According to slashdot japan a company called Source Next wanted to fix the problem that many laptop owners faced when it came to software. Lately the trend of laptops is to be small, which means that a lot of them actually don't have any optical drive. Source Next's solution for this problem was to start selling their software on USB memory sticks.
On the fifth of next month (in 6 days) Next Source will sell their first USB memory stick programs. The program Virus Security Zero along with 6 other programs are to be put up for sale in this first round of releases. The second round of releases is already scheduled for October. The second round of releases will be 13 software titles.
As with all changes there are positives and negatives. The positive parts of this change are things like the fact that almost all computers can access the software, it accesses faster than an optical drive in most cases, it is quiet and it can be used as a storage medium. But, what are the negatives? I really can't think of any. If I really had to think of one i guess it would be the fact that USB would be harder to store than CDs or DVDs. You would need to come up with a great labeling system if you get enough of these programs.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is ソフト(そふと). It is pronounced sofuto and means software. It is amazing how fast storage media has moved forward. From tape drives to DVDs and USB flash memory in less than 30 years. I wonder what things will be stored on in 30 more years.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
I've been downloading software for years. Including Norton (Symantec) applications, MS applications (office, et al), and AutoCAD! This way you don't have to go through all the trouble of plugging something in!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, this is a case of "why didn't anyone think of this before?". Its a great selling point, and USB drives don't cost that much thesedays.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I am more for downloading as well. But, if they are going to sell the software on some sort of media it might as well be on flash memory. Just as an extra incentive to buy the software. I wonder if companies in other countries will catch on. Someone really should have thought about it by now.
ReplyDelete