Prompt's TechBlog
Microsoft to charge $50/year for antivirus protection
08 February 2006
Posted by Sean McManusCustomers wanting Microsoft's antivirus protection will need to pay $50 per year to subscribe to OneCare, according to The Register. This price is comparable with the up-front cost of rival products, although it is more expensive than the typical second year renewal rate. That said, antivirus firms tend to obsolete their software after a year so you're forced to upgrade to the latest version at near-full cost anyway.
Many viruses in circulation are years old. They continue to spread because people aren't using antivirus protection at all, or haven't updated it for years. Charging people $50 to protect the operating system they've already paid for won't win them over.
Comments:
To play 'devil's advocate' for a moment, not that I'm in any way suggesting Bill Gates is beelzebub, or anything...
The majority of people running any existing desktop operating system, but noteably current iterations of Windows, don't rely solely on inbuilt OS security applications. Often they'll buy a third-party security suite from the likes of Symantec or McAfee for an initial fee of around £50 then around £30 a year from then on.
Now, although most of us get these prices knocked down a little at Amazon or on the High Street, that's still a noteable annual surcharge on our computing. Looking at it this way, Microsoft's own additional security suite at £29 per year, which not only has the 'benefit' of closer integration with the OS but importantly licenses up to *three* PCs for that price, doesn't look quite so bad.
Of course, I fully agree, there's no earthly reason (other than massive lucrative commercial ones) why it wasn't just shoved into Vista at little or no additional cost. But I don't think this will be the last Vista bell and/or whistle we'll be complaining about in 2006 either...
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