Software: Versions vs. Features

Posted: August 7th, 2003 | Author: telcor | Filed under: Software |

Recently, AOL announced that it is:

abandoning its strategy of making major changes to its AOL software as part of a single annual release in favor of rolling out fresh upgrades as soon as the new features are ready

.

As some types of software become more pervasive, I see them following a trend similar to utilities: marketing features rather than versions. After all, companies such as AT&T don’t brag about Long Distance verison 11.5, nor does AEP try to sell you Consumer Housing Power 25. Rather they focus on the services, features and capabilities they can offer you in contrast to their competitors.

While I doubt we would ever see an end to version marketing for some types of software, it is a general direction that the major software companies (Microsoft with it’s subscription desire) want to go.

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