Investors love subscription numbers because its consistent profit flow, so many publically traded companies are trying to find ways to turn anything into a subscription. When youre beholden to investors demands, this is the result.
Its why conpanies trying to remove car play/android auto needs to go away. All they want is users to uae their service and start charging you subscription fees themselves once you bought in.
They already have service on the engine and tires, as well as the revenue from financing and leasing. All that is consistent profit flow. Stuff like heated seats or CarPlay just feels cheap, especially since those are 1 time things.
Services can make sense for something that requires ongoing expenses from the provider to maintain, but that isn’t the case with heated seats. Remote start which is simply a button on the fob should be a 1 time thing. However, if the remote start is via an app, which also provides the ability for remote lock/unlock, setting the heat/AC, and various other things… that requires some back end infrastructure to work, which have monthly bills to pay. I get it. Of course, I think there are some brands which include that as part of the purchase price, at least for the first several years, which feels nicer. I’m sure customers are still paying for it, it’s just no an “extra” charge.
The software upgrades to unlock more power or better self-driving from the car are also stupid… the person already bought all the expensive bits, they’re just being artificially limited and it would cost the automaker nothing to make all the cars run at the upgraded speed from the factory.
Investors love subscription numbers because its consistent profit flow, so many publically traded companies are trying to find ways to turn anything into a subscription. When youre beholden to investors demands, this is the result.
Its why conpanies trying to remove car play/android auto needs to go away. All they want is users to uae their service and start charging you subscription fees themselves once you bought in.
They already have service on the engine and tires, as well as the revenue from financing and leasing. All that is consistent profit flow. Stuff like heated seats or CarPlay just feels cheap, especially since those are 1 time things.
Services can make sense for something that requires ongoing expenses from the provider to maintain, but that isn’t the case with heated seats. Remote start which is simply a button on the fob should be a 1 time thing. However, if the remote start is via an app, which also provides the ability for remote lock/unlock, setting the heat/AC, and various other things… that requires some back end infrastructure to work, which have monthly bills to pay. I get it. Of course, I think there are some brands which include that as part of the purchase price, at least for the first several years, which feels nicer. I’m sure customers are still paying for it, it’s just no an “extra” charge.
The software upgrades to unlock more power or better self-driving from the car are also stupid… the person already bought all the expensive bits, they’re just being artificially limited and it would cost the automaker nothing to make all the cars run at the upgraded speed from the factory.