> You might not like it, but it's actually a better deal than before.
So if Apple would ask you for a nice $10/m to use their famous iPhone camera features you would be okay with that, because otherwise you would be fine with 8MP photos or pay additional $10 * 12m * 3y = $360 upfront? Of course, no changes in hardware at all. And the price of iPhone is the same, not $360 cheaper.
Try looking at it from the other side: you're getting a product at a lower base price and can upgrade to a higher model at a later point in time. It's more like buying, and paying for, an iPhone 14 and then having the possibility to upgrade the camera to the iPhone 14 Pro version afterwards.
There's ton of precedent for products that are artificially locked to a lower version. The difference between a NVidia GeForce and the much more expensive Quadro used to be just a bunch of ID resistors. Processor speeds are locked in a similar way.
Same thing with software. There's many cases where you purchase a piece of software and can later buy a feature or "Pro" unlock. You already downloaded all the bits & bytes to you device. Are you not OK with that?
I'm a bit surprised that the people on Hackernews of all places has such a reaction to this. Subscription models and SaaS have been practically invented here.
Those precedents in hardware are not exactly good. And the more expensive a product is, the less acceptable artificial locks are.
With software, the entire model is buying functionality, and then you can use it on the hardware of your choice. And it has to work that way. It's worth keeping in mind but it's not directly comparable to a hardware purchase.
> Try looking at it from the other side: you're getting a product at a lower base price
Do you really think what you pay less?
If we talk about software unlocked hardware this is a moot point, the manufacturer still needs to spend money to produce and install the thing in the product, so you are paying for the hardware anyway. BMW heated seats subscription is a good example. And again you are taking the manufacturer words for it, despite they would never show how exactly they manage to drive the price down.[0]
> It's more like buying, and paying for, an iPhone 14 and then having the possibility to upgrade the camera to the iPhone 14 Pro version afterwards.
Which implies the change to the hardware. We are now discussing when there is no change in the HW, only some SW lock on that hardware.
> The difference between a NVidia GeForce and the much more expensive Quadro used to be just a bunch of ID resistors. Processor speeds are locked in a similar way.
Yes, and that forced NVidia to actually implement something useful for CAD (or degrade CAD performance on consumer products, alas). CPUs doesn't fit here, because again, nobody gives you an option to "unlock" more cores or speeds (but Intel tried and IBM did this for ages for their mainframes and POWER systems, but these are not a consumer products).
> Same thing with software. There's many cases where you purchase a piece of software and can later buy a feature or "Pro" unlock. You already downloaded all the bits & bytes to you device. Are you not OK with that?
There is no additional costs, waste and carbon footprint to produce a different software. You, as a vendor, spent money one time on R&D/development, now you support it for a tiny fraction of the cost. You don't spend money and resources on never be used part of software.
For a heated seats you spend the resources to actually manufacture and install it, even if it would be never used.
> I'm a bit surprised that the people on Hackernews of all places has such a reaction to this. Subscription models and SaaS have been practically invented here.
Sorry, but leasing and subsidizing were invented centuries before Internet and HN. And what you mix software with hardware and protecting the poor capitalistic companies are quite telling.
[0] Hint: those who pay for the feature pay not only for themselves, but for the others, who did not pay, too. Even the manufacturer never actually lowered the cost of the product.
PS automotive manufacturers are well known for charging absurd prices for things what costs peanuts. How can you believe them what 'they are reducing the base price' is beyond me.
Peak humanity in this thread:) The trade-offs are driving a Mercedes at 250 km/h vs 295 km/h; or some Apple camera with three lenses vs one lens. I am so glad I live in a country where I have to make these choices.
How is this relevant to the manufacturers extorting a subscription for the existing hardware? It's totaly up to you take to pay or not for Halide. Halide doesn't gut your iPhone cameras performance if you didn't pay them.
Who said anything about gutting the performance? This is about adding a performance package that is software based. In the, albeit poor, iPhone analogy the performance camera package happens to come from a different company.
Well, if we are here for poor analogies, it's more like you gone to some 3rd-party shop and they flashed your ECU with a new firmware which gives you options your car hadn't before. And this is a thing already, for at least two decades, people are reprogramming the ECU to have more power. It's extremely popular.
What is similar in the both cases is what it's a 3rd-party option.
Look at my other comment in this thread, maybe it would be clearer what I mean.
So if Apple would ask you for a nice $10/m to use their famous iPhone camera features you would be okay with that, because otherwise you would be fine with 8MP photos or pay additional $10 * 12m * 3y = $360 upfront? Of course, no changes in hardware at all. And the price of iPhone is the same, not $360 cheaper.