Devious Strategy
I have just become aware of a new industry strategy possibly becoming a trend. Companies often offer shareware, prototypes, trials, and freebies to get you hooked and build a critical mass of users to test, perfect or spread the word. Once the product reaches maturity they callously scream “monetize” and in turn discontinue your use or access to it until and unless you pay to move up to their latest greatess master strategy or improved product. Sometimes they even hold your previous information and data for ransome. One example I point to is Google Docs getting bundled into Google Drive. This strategy reminds me of the tactics that Microsoft became infamous for in the earlier days of computing. Some would consider this brilliant still others would see this as sneaky and devious.
I intend to monitor this to see if in fact it is a strategy becoming a trend. I have been caught in this grind four times now in the past two months and it is beginning to bother me enormously.