I write this article seated on a chair which was made some forty years ago. The chair is still perfectly functional and I have had no reason to change it.
The same goes for my desk – and for many other items in this room...
The same is NOT true for my computer – a Macintosh PowerBook just three months old. The first-ever computer I owned has been on a shelf in the cellar for a long time. Since it, I’ve had a new computer at least every two years.
Not to mention the software! In the beginning there was Word Star and Apple Writer. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then! With the advent of Macintosh, came Mac Write. Then along came Microsoft Word 1.0, then 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and so on,up to the current version of Microsoft Office.
How much have I spent over the years on software? Much, much more than the cost of the latest version! Think of the vast amounts spent, for example, by someone who purchased AutoCAD 1.0 and has since updated it constantly over the years.
It all goes to show that it’s a big mistake to count the purchase price only of your software, when it’s the updates that really cost money. Any company or professional studio will tell you that nowadays the annual amount spent on program updates far exceeds expenditure on software.
Which brings me to my point. Why buy software when you have to spend large sums on updating it? Why not rent?
Several software houses offer you the option – including Interstudio - we brought out our Rent-a-Cad formula five years ago.
Now Interstudio is proud to announce an even more flexible formula : Rent-a-Cad has changed its name to Rent-to-Own, to reflect the very special nature of our rental formula which, year by year, accrues 50% of your rental payments against the purchase price. You end up owner of the software and can continue updating it at very low cost.
See above, for the main features of the Rent-to-Own formula.
