Software warranties
Why doesn’t most software have a warranty? You can find software that comes with warranties and guarantees–just not from a major software company. Many small companies will routinely put a warranty and guarantee on their software, saying that the software will work substantially as specified in the manual or you get your money back.
Try finding that from a major software company–or at least, try finding it as a normal consumer. I’m sure that y0u can get whatever you want if you are a larage corporation and you are willing to negotiate your own contracts. Of course, you’ll be paying a lot extra for warranties or guarantees.
The software I write and sell for my side business comes with a warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. It’s the only professional thing to do. Plus you get all upgrades for free, forever (well, as long as I keep writing new upgrades).
Interestingly enough, the lifetime free upgrades also seems to be common in smaller companies. Many years ago, I bought a music composing program (Melody Assistant), which included free upgrades forever. I recently decided to play with it again, so I downloaded the latest version and tried my registration code. It didn’t work any more because the registration system had changed. I emailed them and got a new registration code for free.
In economics, there is the theory of “economy of scale” which says that it is cheaper to produce lots of something than it is to produce a little bit of something. However, there should be a theory of “diseconomy of scale” which says that a large company can’t afford to make small quantities. So a product that might sell 1,000 or even 10,000 copies a year isn’t interesting to a large software company–it won’t make enough money to justify being a product.
– Scott