- Joined
- Sep 19, 2003
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
I'm desiging product activation for our company's software products and while I've done LOTS of research on the topic, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some here too. Most of you probably don't represent our user demographic, but I'm still curious as to your opinions. Please reply if you get a chance 
Here's some information I found that you might find interesting:
-Microsoft stated in Oct. 2004 that 70% of their product activations occurred over the internet. 2% of activations were a result of someone upgrading or changing hardware.
-Turbo Tax tried to implement activation in 2002 and it failed miserably, many users got pist off and they stripped it out in later versions. Most of the information I've found points to users griping about not being able to install the product on more than 1 system or transfer licenses.
-Most companies have no internet-based DEactivation process. That is, you can't free up a license or activate the product on another system without calling them. This even goes for almost ALL of the major software companies that use product activation (Microsoft, Symantec, etc.).
We would be allowing for product activation as well as an internet based DEactivation which would allow you to deactivate a product on 1 system to install on another.
Questions:
Would you see any value in a simple internet-based deactivation process for freeing up a license for another system? (Assuming you PAID for the software)
Would this make you feel any better about product activation?
Here's some information I found that you might find interesting:
-Microsoft stated in Oct. 2004 that 70% of their product activations occurred over the internet. 2% of activations were a result of someone upgrading or changing hardware.
-Turbo Tax tried to implement activation in 2002 and it failed miserably, many users got pist off and they stripped it out in later versions. Most of the information I've found points to users griping about not being able to install the product on more than 1 system or transfer licenses.
-Most companies have no internet-based DEactivation process. That is, you can't free up a license or activate the product on another system without calling them. This even goes for almost ALL of the major software companies that use product activation (Microsoft, Symantec, etc.).
We would be allowing for product activation as well as an internet based DEactivation which would allow you to deactivate a product on 1 system to install on another.
Questions:
Would you see any value in a simple internet-based deactivation process for freeing up a license for another system? (Assuming you PAID for the software
)Would this make you feel any better about product activation?
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