Do we really own our tech products? David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Do we really own our tech products? David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

I'm sick of buying the same thing again and again



In the past couple of weeks I have received two emails from Microsoft. The first one advised me that my computer’s subscription to MS Office had expired and, if I wanted to continue to use Word, Excel and the software suite’s other features, I’d have to pay for another annual subscription.

The second email warned me that some data from my One Drive cloud-storage service would soon be erased because the maximum allowable amount had dropped from 15GB to 5GB. My options were to delete selected files until I was under the new limit or – and you've probably guessed it – pay for more space.

This had me pining for the time when it was more common to buy Office outright – you still can, but today’s subscription model is likely to be more popular – and were able use it for ever as long as you didn’t continually update your version of Windows, which ultimately renders most software inoperative. One exception, incidentally, being a file-transfer program called WS-FTP95 which I downloaded free more than 20 years ago and has worked on every version of Windows up to including the current one. Best money I never spent.

Now I fully understand the thinking of the creators of Office and other subscription-based software, such as Adobe’s Creative Suite. They are investing money in making enhancements to their product, so it would only seem fair that we as customers continue to pay them to do so.

But what if I don’t want those enhancements? I know Word for Windows has undergone many changes since it was released in 1989, but the fact is that I’d be quite happy to be using the version I bought in 1997, which could do absolutely everything I’ve ever wanted to do with word-processing software on my home computer. It’s just a shame that it came on 5¼-inch floppy disks that are not readable by my laptop (or, I believe, by any other device still being manufactured). So, I am faced with having to pay once again for Word, along with all those bells and whistles that I don’t need and won’t ever use.

But software developers aren’t the only ones playing this game. I was introduced to the term “planned obsolescence” many years ago when I heard the (possibly apocryphal) story about the man who was sacked from his job designing refrigerators. The reason given by his bosses was that his fridges were simply too robust. They lasted for decades, but the company’s business plan relied on customers having to buy a new model at least every 10 years.

Similarly, we don’t have to buy music or films any more, we can stream them from the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Netflix. We have access to our favourite content until we stop paying, and then it all disappears back into the cloud.

And, just like my One Drive, these services often come with a free trial period, intended to lure us in before we are signed up, probably for life. I am really bad at remembering to cancel standing orders on my credit card, so it’s often the case that I continue to pay for services long after I stop using them. Case in point: my e-life television package that I’ve not accessed this year. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Now, I don’t object to people – artists, musicians, software designers – getting paid for the work they do. But there should be a limit to the number of times I have to pay for the same thing. In the case of music, I already own many songs several times over, having purchased them in different formats and/or as part of compilations.

I can and will continue to purchase my favourite songs or movies on physical disks or as digital downloads and own them for all time, playing them whenever I want for nothing more than the cost of the electricity to recharge my device.

But maybe, one day, I won’t be able to do that. If the owners of that material can make more money from selling it to me again and again, they will almost certainly find a way to do that.

bdebritz@thenational.ae

On Twitter: @debritz

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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TOURNAMENT INFO

Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier

Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November

UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5

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'Gold'

Director:Anthony Hayes

Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes

Rating:3/5

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company%20Profile
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How to increase your savings
  • Have a plan for your savings.
  • Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
  • Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
  • It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings. 

- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

 

 

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hoopla%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jacqueline%20Perrottet%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2010%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20required%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now