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Software Vending Machines
anubis__ writes "CNN details a sort-of software vending machine named 'SoftwareToGo' that CompUSA is testing out in their Seattle, WA, Dallas, TX, and San Francisco, CA stores. The upside to this vending machine is that your CD is burned when you request it, so the latest patches available for the software you're buying might already be included with the installation. The downside, like anything requiring some level of technical aptitude in the US, is that the machines are avoided by the masses of shoppers." This has been in the works for a year or so.
...but as other people noted in the last thread, you miss out on some of the other other niceties. For one, I hate "online" manuals. You can take your PDFs and stuff 'em. I treasure my spiral-bound manual for Neverwinter Nights.
Also, about patches: this would be nice for things that need updated patches, like Windows.... except Microsoft won't sell Windows or Office at these kiosks! Erk.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
The public has in the past shown an aversion to these sorts of machines. Complex vending machines look intimidating, usually are hard to use and the consumer if often afraid of "accidently" buying something or "breaking" the machine.
Thalasar
IF I want some burned software I can download it from the net - even after paying for it ;-)
But if I go to a shop I want a pressed CD - these hold longer.
You know those little stickers...
"This machine will not release free product"
Then a little picture of the machine falling on a stick figure. Maybe it'll be a Penguin?
There's just no coin slot to insert your payment.
Not games, or most desktop-targetted apps, because you can't burn their precious anti-copying schemes.
.pdf or README file.
And if it was going to be higher-end office type stuff, like OS's or DVD authoring, or ANYTHING that costs 19.99 or higher, and people are going to want the box, the official CD, and most of all - THE MANUAL.
Dead tree manuals are easier to read than some
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Wow. I can't tell you how many times I've said "Gee, I'd really like to buy software from a vending machine at a computer store". I mean, it's so much easier than just pulling it down off the shelf, and there are so few things that could go wrong with this.
OK, sarcasm aside, if I'm going to buy software from a store, I want the box, a paper manual, and all that other stuff that goes with shrinwrap software. If I wanted a CD-R and no printed materials, there are other ways to do it.
I'm a very active CD archiving person, with live music (think phish/dead/etc, its all legal, but thats really beside the point). In the long term, say 6-8 months, I find that alot of my burned disks become unreadable...which would annoy me alot more if my 400 dollar copy of windows XP pro was burned onto it. I wonder if this is addressed at all by this system, or is the buyer just screwed?
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
This is the technology that might replace their obsolete distribution model.
--
Ride, shoot straight & speak the truth.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
now instead of kicking a machine for your $0.65 snack getting stuck, you can get really mad when your $60 game gets stuck!
The downside, like anything requiring some level of technical aptitude in the US, is that the machines are avoided by the masses of shoppers
He's right on here. Despite being more convienient to a college campus and half the price, people just didn't want to use a machine. There is a different mindset for poeple who know what they want and shop online, most people, however, seem to want to look and touch before they buy.
"Debian Linux - 6 CD's, $6.00"
"Mandrake Linux - 3 CD's, $3.00"
"Fedora Linux - 3 CD's, $3.00"
"Gentoo Linux - 1 CD, $1.00"
"Knoppix Linux - 1 CD, $1.00"
"Vector Linux - 1 CD, $1.00"
"Peanut Linux - 1 CD, $1.00"
"Microsoft Windows XP Home - 1 CD, $89" This actually might be a good way to get novices to try Linux, especially the Knoppix (or the BitDefender Knoppix based "Linux Defender", which makes an excellent recovery disk)...
...sheet music, that is. I used to work for a music store, and we had a machine for sheet music that was similar to this one. You put in your money, select your song and key, and it prints out.
I don't recall ever seeing anyone using it, which made me mad mostly because I was the one who had to unload it from the truck and it was dang heavy.
People in general are just not going to want to do anything more than push one button, maybe two. It's a lot easier to paw through the bargain bins and the store shelves.
I also just don't trust something like this. Personally, I want to take something physically from a shelf and walk it up to the counter so that I know exactly what I'm getting.
Do you feel safe sticking $100+ into a vending machine? I mean, it's a pain enough to try and stick a single dollar bill into a Coke machine, but try sticking five or six twenties in there.
Also, these would be targeted like ATMs, but probably with less security. They'll probably sit inside the store, but without the procedural security of a cashier's drawer.
Will the product be cheaper than the boxed version? If not, why wouldn't you just buy the boxed?
"The upside to this vending machine is that your CD is burned when you request it,..."
So...I gotta wait 4 minutes before I find out the machine has taken my money and now the disc is jammed in the damned chute!!!!!
Ummmm...I think I'll pass on this one.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
I was living in NY when they first rolled out the Metrocard vending machines. Its amazing how long it took the average person over the age of 35 or so to get a card. There were people with stacks of these cards because they couldn't figure out how to renew an old one.
Maybe in about 4 decades when the vast majority of society is technically adept, but by then they'd probably come up with something new that dumbfounds us oldtimers. As it I refuse to send or reply to cellphone text messages. I don't need another language of shortcut keys taking up valuable brain space.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
The only real problem is that the one thing that would benefit the most from patching (OSes) will most likely be missing from the selection.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Half the software industry is trying to make all these hi-level security iso so that CDs can't be copied.
Half the software industry is moving toward "Software-to-go" so that software can be distributed easily.
Which is it? You can't have both.
Imagine the kids opening up a generic, burned CD from CompUSA instead of the flashy box with screenshots. You can forget riding home in the backseat of the car and ripping the plastic off to scour the manual. I guess you can stare at the white CD sleeve and get lost in the Times New Roman font displaying the name of the software printed on the front.
In a few years, these are in every CompUSA, but selling those shareware/PD collections, game demos, windows service packs, maybe a linux distro. Cheap stuff, a couple bucks a CD.
They'll make a decent profit off of it, and people will like it because it's easier than scraping download.com.
NOONE is going to stick their credit card in a vending machine and trust it to spit out a $500 photo-editing suite or a copy of Windows Server. Well, some would, I wouldnt.
And as for games, well, people who pay retail prices for games want the box for teh shelf. Besides, as I already said in this story, you cant burn the copy protection.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Typical /. elitism.
Most people in this country do NOT have broadband. It could also be that they don't want to spend a couple hours downloading a large file, then have to burn it.
Not only this, but the vending machine offers a way to browse many different companies' titles in one kiosk. You can search for an age-specific software title (as the article illustrates) or get the newest patches with the software all in one.
This isn't aimed at people like you who download and burn with the greatest of ease. It's made for the people who normally go into a CompUSA to buy sotware, as a way to clear up some shelf space for the lesser titles that hardly get any room, among the bigger titles that clog the shelves. It's a way to search without having to see whether a title's hidden behind another, etc. It's also a way to keep these products in stock, which saves money for the store.
It's somehow better in many, many ways.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
This is a system that has only one real customer, the merchant. It's sole purpose is to make life easier for the retailer and provides very, very few benefits to the consumer. It has all of the hassle of buying from a brick and mortar store with none of the benefits.
The only advantage of a software vending machine to the consumer is that they always get the latest version of the software. In any reasonably stocked computer store this shouldn't be an issue anyway.
Think of all the things that could go wrong...
1. Bad burns. Who do you go to if you get a bad copy? Can you get a refund?
2. Who maintains the file server that the vending machine uses. I am sure a rouge CompUSA employee could easily throw a virus or two on the ISOs.
3. How do you get the CD key?
4. Who wants to stand there and wait for a CD to burn?
5. I hope they use a damn good burner, most will wear out rather quickly.
Not a sermon, just a thought.
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
Do we know this?
Personally I think this is just another way to charge the same price for less product and less service.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
My God! We are reinventing the wheel.
When I had an Spectrum, a company called Labware created something like this. Its name was EDOS. Given that in 1988 computers used to work with cassettes (Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore 64 & 128...), it recorded software to cassettes.
It was a computer with a tape recorder and was to be installed in software stores. When you wanted a program, the EDOS connected (through a modem) to Labware, downloaded it and recorded to the tape. Software didn't stay in the EDOS longer than the time it needed to record.
Here is a photo.
Where is the revolution, then?