Microsoft “pay as you go” scheme
Microsoft has applied for a patent that allows the metering of PC software usage. Computerworld reports:
Microsoft Corp. last week applied for a patent that spells out a “pay as you go” concept under which users would be charged for both the software they run and the computing horsepower they use.
According to the patent application filed last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the “Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience” scheme would meter software use and access to specific computer hardware. Fees would be charged against a prepaid or billed account.
Microsoft has wanted to go to a model of charging ongoing fees for software usage for a long time. In fact, it sort of does that now. When you buy Windows or other Microsoft applications, you don’t actually own it. You buy a license to use it. Every few years, you are expected to pay up for a new version. Also, we have the “software as a service” model that is already in place in businesses. So don’t be surprised if in the future you pay fees according to how much you use software. You may not even have much software on your own computer since it will all be in the “cloud”.
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