I went to a seminar in Nov. All software packages there went to the subscription model. If I subscribed to all the packages it would cost about $1500 a month. Very few average users could afford or willing to pay for an increase of $1500 a month in expenses.
Needless to say,, the vendors were crying how tough the sell was this year. I told one vendor group that I would not be doing any subscriptions. That I would sit in their seminar modules and that would be it.
First: I would not pay $1500 a month from now on and be held hostage to some vendor. Second: there was nothing new being offered that most of us did not already have. Third: there was not a single package any of us could not live without.
One module was a monthly charge of $90 a month to get an app for the iPhone to give to clients. That way we can spam our clients with Facebook type posts and then make an offer every three days on some special..
I predict there will be a serious shakeup in the software world very soon with this subscription model.