Autodesk Upgrade Pricing

[Laszlo Nagy]

I just read a post about the changes Autodesk is planning for their upgrade pricing. Basically it is about forcing everybody on subscription otherwise they will pay their shirt off:

http://bimboom.blogspot.com/2012/05/news-flash-autodesk-to-remove-upgrade.html

The way they do it is they say that upgrade from the 6 previous versions will cost 70% of the full price of the software (it now costs 50% for the last 3 versions, then 70% for the next last 3 version). So if you buy, say AutoCAD 2013 or Revit 2013 now but do not go on subscription, then next year you will have to pay 70% of the full price to upgrade from version 2013 to version 2014.
So basically their users are COERCED to be on subscription.
The guy also says they will also increase the price of their subscriptions so either way it is more money out of the pockets of their users into theirs.

I honestly feel sorry for their users. It feels to me like Autodesk is now fully using its size and power to have its way to the detriment of the users it should be serving.

What do you guys think?

[JaredBanks]

Also remember the cost of going from 11 to 16 or 10 to 16 or 7 to 16 is still that same price. And if you decide to sit on 12 for another 2 years, it'll probably still be just £2000 to go from 12 to 18.

THAT is a huge difference.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Turning back to the original topic:
I was reading recently that Autodesk plans to cease the possibility to upgrade from 2015. There will be no upgrade, only either subscription or buying the new version one year later at full price.
I am wondering how that makes users feel. It seems to me they are clearly forced to subscription. I will be interested to see if Autodesk will be able to pull off this strategy or it will backfire on them.

[Anonymous]

The problem of this approach is that it creates no incentive for the developer to make a good upgrades. Regardless if it is Archicad or Revit. What it should be is if I don't like the upgrade I just don't do it. I do it when I feel that my money is well spent. But when you know that even if you don't like next version, but you will have to pay for it at some point when that version you like comes around then what's the benefit for the customer and the warning signal for the developer? It actually hurts developers, because they go less feedback and driving motivation to do a good job.

[Eduardo Rolon]

update to the announcement:

http://www.studiodaily.com/2014/10/autodesk-plans-to-go-subscription-only-over-next-one-to-two-years...

Autodesk Plans to Go Subscription-Only Over Next One to Two Years
Push Will Start with AutoCAD LT, Then Move Across All Products
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A little more than a year after first revealing its desktop subscription plans, Autodesk says it's preparing to stop selling perpetual licenses of its software entirely. The switch won't be flipped overnight, but will be implemented a little bit at a time over the next one to two years, the company said.
The roll-out of desktop subscriptions "is going incredibly well," said Autodesk Senior Vice President of Industry Strategy and Marketing Andrew Anagnost yesterday, speaking during a presentation as part of Autodesk's Investor Day 2014. He said 35 percent of its subscription customers are completely new to Autodesk products. Still, he cited Autodesk figures showing that 2.9 million users of its products are still on perpetual licenses as the impetus for putting a firmer push behind the pay-as-you-go subscription model for software.
"The number of customers that are one to five releases back on our software stays relatively consistent year after year after year," he said. "They are real customers …. They just happen to purchase from us perpetual licenses on an infrequent basis because they can. This isn't really good for our ecosystem [because] we would like to see everybody on our most current release. We think that's good for customers."
Perpetual software licenses will be discontinued in stages over the next 12 to 24 months, according to Anagnost. "This isn't going to be an event," he said. "This is going to be a transition where we work on products and regions as we remove new perpetual licenses from the offering mix."
The guinea pig for the process will be AutoCAD LT, Anagnost said, while suggesting that other LT products (including Maya LT) may follow. He discussed some of the economics behind the decision, revealing that the "average annual value" to Autodesk of a user of one of its LT products — lower-cost, entry-level versions of its most popular tools — is $240 per year, based on their sporadic purchases of upgrades and maintenance subscriptions. By contrast, a user who has a desktop subscription to one of the LT products is worth, on average, $310 per year. "That is a 30 percent increase in value back to Autodesk, with an offering that provides access to the customer at prices they've never seen before," Anagnost said.
To date, most subscription sales, 51 percent, have come from Autodesk's own e-store, Anagnost said, acknowledging that the company has to make subscriptions more attractive to its reseller channel. Steve Blum, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Services, said that in the company's fourth fiscal quarter, which begins in November, it will start adjusting the margins for its resellers, making sales of desktop subscriptions of the LT products as profitable as sales of perpetual licenses have been.
Wall Street seems pretty happy with the news—the company's stock traded briefly earlier today at an all-time high of $58.75.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Yes, I guess they have to go from USD 240 to USD 310 per AutoCAD LT users. The shareholders demand maximum value, you know. That is always a good excuse.
I will be curious as to how many users they lose. I just read that Draftsight from Dassault, a free AutoCAD-clone has almost 3 million users and that is just one alternative. If they start this no-permanent-licence thing with AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD, that could drive users to these alternatives.

[PB]

Very aggressive move!

We've just seen the email sent out by a french Autodesk 'Gold Partner': As from 1st February 2015, upgrades from previous versions will not be sold at anything less than new seat price - the only upgrade path is through the subscription model !

The email specifically states that, as from this date, if the latest version of your choice of Autodesk software is desired, and you are not under subscription, then a new seat will need to be purchased.

I, for one, am very happy to be using ArchiCAD (although I must admit that I am under subscription...).