What's the rationale behind the current model?
From a business perspective, the older versions are used by older or larger companies that couldn't or didn't want to upgrade, they have money to shell out and should be charged more.
From a business perspective, the older versions are used by older or larger companies that couldn't or didn't want to upgrade, they have money to shell out and should be charged more.
The idea is to grow the user base as large as possible and then sell them the latest version or other products.
Give away a version with 3rd party hardware is to grow the user base to new markets. Let somebody else handle the marketing / distribution and get their users. Sure lots people throw away the CD of bundled software when they buy something, but a decent number still install it.
Give away free is same idea. People love free stuff and will download it. Then hopefully they enjoy it and upgrade to get more features.