http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/21/avg_freemium_browsing_history_slurp/

Roy Lambert

Roy,

Yeah, saw that on Hacker News.  Creepy !

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Roy,

Also, expect more of the same as businesses slowly discover that freeware actually means "zero income coming in, while costs still present".

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim


>Also, expect more of the same as businesses slowly discover that freeware actually means "zero income coming in, while costs still present".

Probably true. I find it amazing that companies can't work that one out. I think that part of the problem is that whilst a loss leader may work it won't if the loss leader is a) to good and b) pretty much the same as the full product.

I suppose I can't complain - I've been running the free version for a long time. I did buy the full version of MBAM because I felt that was worth it. I think I'd pay (these days) for AV software that did just that rather than the all encompassing ones out there.

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< Probably true. I find it amazing that companies can't work that one out. I think that part of the problem is that whilst a loss leader may work it won't if the loss leader is a) to good and b) pretty much the same as the full product. >>

Yeah, but even that is tough.  Study after study has shown that once the price is "free", it is *very* difficult to get someone to pay *anything* for it.  Even charging a $1 changes this behavior significantly.  By giving away something for free, you're inadvertently signaling to potential customers that your product doesn't have any value.

The only time "free" works is when you're not actually interested in selling anything in the first place.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

On 9/25/2015 12:18 PM, Tim Young [Elevate Software] wrote:
> Yeah, but even that is tough.  Study after study has shown that once the price is "free", it is *very* difficult to get someone to pay *anything* for it.  Even charging a $1 changes this behavior significantly.  By giving away something for free, you're inadvertently signaling to potential customers that your product doesn't have any value.

I find the even trickier one the concept on mobile that "paid" apps are
$0.99-$3.99 and expectation that anything decent should be less than $5

> The only time "free" works is when you're not actually interested in selling anything in the first place.

Or you happen to be selling your customer data  

On 9/25/2015 2:38 AM, Roy Lambert wrote:
> Probably true. I find it amazing that companies can't work that one out. I think that part of the problem is that whilst a loss leader may work it won't if the loss leader is a) to good and b) pretty much the same as the full product.

Even if there full product has more features they tend to me the stuff
most people don't care about - decent AV is all most people want so if
that is free then majority will likely not bother upgrading.

Then there are always the issue of AV products themselves introducing
vulnerabilities (for example
http://googleprojectzero.blogspot.ca/2015/09/kaspersky-mo-unpackers-mo-problems.html).


Raul