Considering equipment leases have been around forever I feel like this is just a way to say "why yes, we do subscriptions as well!". The real takeaway here is it's not that subscribers (customers) want this. It's that Wall Street wants this because: investors. This is because deferred futures are great for smoothing and forecasting of revenue. Subscriptions are ultimately bad for the buyer because you pay more and get less in most situations. And then you have vendors offering subscriptions that literally have taken formerly perpetually sold product and wrapped it up in a subscription model with little to no value add. It's also given vendors a way to lock customers out of support and upgrades. I'm waiting for the pushback... People complain about it, but not as vocally as they should.