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.

Comments

This might work out for the rare stuff

[Liselle]

...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.

Re:This might work out for the rare stuff

[willy134]

I remember when the local kinkos copy center had a shareware vending machine. For one dollar you could get a floppy disk with several shareware games on it. It was great when the local bbs didn't have the games and they kept it farely well upgraded.

Re:This might work out for the rare stuff

[Allen Zadr]

Paper manual might be a bit much, but certainly - 'cheat-sheet' style print-outs would be VERY useful. Esp. when learning a new game - "What's the keystroke to walk sideways again?" The full manual can be a PDF, but a cheat sheet or two are extremely usefull (and usually isn't found in printable form, instead it's across 5 to 8 pages across two or more PDFs).

Basically, if something comes with a cheat sheet, I could care less about a printed manual, but without a cheat sheet, the manual is a must.

Basic Problems

[(54)T-Dub]

I thought this would be a great way to buy PC games from distributors known for sloppy work until I red this:

There are more than 20 titles from Activision, 10 from Edmark, more than a dozen from Microsoft and Symantec but none from Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Adobe or Intuit.

Then I thought, well at least windows will be up to date which would make new installs easier:

Microsoft, however, is keeping some of its marquee titles -- such as the Windows operating system and Office software suite -- off both the Internet and the SoftwareToGo machines "mostly because of security considerations," Berett said.

ROFL, i give up.

Re:Basic Problems

[AKAImBatman]

I think the problem here is that CompUSA thinks people want traditional software from a vending machine. What people actually want is *cheap* software from a vending machine. i.e. I insert a five dollar bill into the machine, and a copy of Mozilla, Linux, iTunes, etc. pops out. I've now saved myself a huge download and burn processes, all for the low cost of a couple of bucks.

Jack the price up to $50-$200, and people will start expecting more. They'll want shrinkwrapping, manuals, free little dodads that come in the box, and other niceties. No way they're going to be thinking about getting *that* out of a vending machine.

Re:Basic Problems

[gnu-generation-one]

So why not install the machine in a library, put on OpenOffice, Mozilla, GIMP, GRASS, Knoppix, Blender, and anything else that takes a week to download via modem?

Good Idea but . . .

[Thanatopsis]

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.

Why not download?

[JoScherl]

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.

Will it be Anti-Open Source?

[SkiddyRowe]

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?

USENET has been a software vending machine forever

[Anonymous Coward]

There's just no coin slot to insert your payment.

Exactly what software will be on this?

[stratjakt]

Not games, or most desktop-targetted apps, because you can't burn their precious anti-copying schemes.

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 .pdf or README file.

Another solution in need of a problem....

[djh101010]

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.

One problem...

[hbean]

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?

The RIAA should take note....

[JustDisGuy]

This is the technology that might replace their obsolete distribution model.

--
Ride, shoot straight & speak the truth.

great idea!

[dark404]

now instead of kicking a machine for your $0.65 snack getting stuck, you can get really mad when your $60 game gets stuck!

Skeptical

[l810c]

I've just closed up shop on a DVD Rental business a friend and I tried on the side the past year and a half. There are thousands of these machines in Europe and there are several companies that tried it here in the states. I don't think any of them are doing well.

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.

Profit Opportunity for Linux

[RailGunner]

How much money do you think one of these could make if it looked like a soda machine, only the buttons said:

"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)...

Re:Profit Opportunity for Linux

[MikeXpop]

1. Grandma Notech (get it? no tech. stay with me here) needs to buy an operating system
2. Grandma Notech sees how expensive Windows is, and instead chooses a linux distribution instead
3. Grandma decides she likes the logo of Gentoo better than all the others and buys it
4. Grandma boots up Gentoo and attempts to install it
5. Grandma's head explodes. Now there's no more grandma
6. ???
7. Profit

Didn't really work for music...

[xTown]

...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.

Targeting...

[lukewarmfusion]

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?

Yea...Right....

[GeneralEmergency]

"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.

Re:I don't see why...

[sTalking_Goat]

you my friend oput too much stock in the human race.

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.

Re:How is this better?

[Penguinisto]

"I really don't see the market unless you are stuck on a 56K modem"

...considering that 80% of the users online are stuck on a 56K modem (usually running at a way slower speed), I'd readily call this a nice-sized market.

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.

So much for Christmas...

[Gruneun]

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.

Here's my prediction

[stratjakt]

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.

Dead in the water

[SheldonYoung]

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.

This existed 15 years ago: EDOS

[paugq]

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?