B2B customers overwhelmingly would prefer to pay subscriptions instead of fixed up-front fees. It scales up and down with use, carries less risk when trying something new, is easier to evaluate "is this worth it?", and preserves cash.
B2C customers overwhelmingly would prefer not to pay for anything at all. :)
Not necessarily. For example, none of my businesses use any software on a rental model where it is critical to our business and having it changed or switched off in the future could cause serious damage. Recent versions of several expensive professional applications we use have gone subscription-only, and our response is simply that we'll keep using the older versions and do without the latest features. If that ceases to be viable because we can't buy any new copies we need any more, we'll take our entire business elsewhere.
I have yet to encounter any software at any price in the business world where there really is no sensible alternative to paying an arbitrarily high price forever and for risking your business taking a big hit if the software gets turned off. And while sometimes compatibility and data formats can form a significant barrier, I have also yet to find any issue that truly could not be overcome or any customer, client or supplier we couldn't work with because they were using the latest and greatest version of something and we weren't (or vice versa).
That makes sense.
I do wonder why nobody offers a subscription service but with some kind of a lease like option, when after paying X months(or when stability is at risk, or too big of a change happens) - you can with a button click port it to a 3rd party hosting and pay only hosting fees ?
That seems to better align with the customers , right?
They've some nice diagrams illustrating how it kicks in here: https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What...
Try reducing your Microsoft O365 subscription. Unless you are paying retail, they'll link your "subscription" to your EA and threaten you with a SAM if you try to unlink them.
Other providers are just using the subscription as a way to jack up your "maintenance" they shift that 20% cash flow to 35-40%, and you retain no perpetual rights.
Microsoft is in a rare position: they essentially have a monopoly - which seems more relevant to your pricing concerns.