SmartSDR Subscription Service

John G3WGV

I was about to buy two 8600 radios to replace the 6400 radios I have now, but I am now canceling my order

Why? This is nothing to do with the hardware. Your 6400 radios will have exactly the same software and the same options for subscribing… or not. If the 8600 hardware was worth your investment before the subscription announcement then it is still worth your investment.

Mike-VA3MW

Thanks for asking John. We would love to understand his concern. I was just typing the same thing. :)

And, we get it. We understand that people will have different opinions on this and some will be ok with it and some won't like it.

BTW, come join us on a YouTube livestream tonight at 9PM ET and I'll try to answer all the questions live.

https://youtube.com/live/RvU4VMm6DKM?feature=share

John G3WGV

That's 2am here in the UK and at my age I need my beauty(?) sleep. I've already made the decision to upgrade my 6600 to an 8600 but I'm interested in how this will develop and will take a look at the livestream when I surface in the morning.

Mike-VA3MW

@John G3WGV good idea! Will I see you at the RSGB convention?

John G3WGV

Yes, absolutely. I see you're doing a presentation on the new Aurora, so I'll definitely want to see that! This is the first year in many that I am not myself giving any talks. BTW, I should be collecting my new 8600 from Martin Lynch at the convention.

John G3WGV

Good work on the video Mike. Everyone should listen to the "subscription model" segment from 29:05. It answers a lot of questions and also makes it clear that Flex is listening and reviewing the model details prior to launch.

I'm happy with my decision to upgrade to the 8600. Martin Lynch has one put aside for me so I look forward to meeting both you and the new radio at the Convention!

Trucker

Enjoyed the live feed. I still have some questions. Not so much about the Subscription other than how long in advance ( if at all) will new features be announced for the next release or year? I know Flex Radio is hoping that many, if not most of us, will subscribe once version 4 is available. I would think that it would make them become more aggressive with new feature releases along with giving some realistic idea of what subscribers can expect other than, you will get the new features released during the year of your subscription.

Plus, how is the company/ upper management ( bean counters) going to react if a lot of people take a wait and see attitude and not subscribe until something interesting or wanted comes along? If the money doesn't start flowing in for a long time from subscribers, because they are waiting to see what is actually being released, will the company start pulling developers away from working on SmartSDR and put them on other projects ( commercial, government) that are generating revenue? ( just like what has happened in the past ) This is why many have hoped for some kind of roadmap. I seriously doubt that Flex Radio's commercial and government customers are left in the dark about what they can expect and approximately when they can expect it. ( I am not so foolish as to not understand that things can be unexpectedly delayed. Nor,do I think other Flex Radio customers are)

Finally, getting to Aurora, nothing new wS mentioned in the video that had not already appeared in the Insider and the special mailer for Aurora preorder customers. Q4 is still the target time period. Nothing said about how close final testing and approval are to being done. Mostly, generalized statements. ( some might say vague) We all know that many things can effect how soon any product is released. That isn't my particular concern. My concern is that again, nothing new from what has already been shared through the Insider and the Aurora update email. Both of thosewere sent out almost a month ago. So, I guess I was hoping that there would be even more up to date information shared in this video. If there was,I must have dozed off and missed it.

James

WD5GWY

Dan Trainor

The only thing I took away from the you tube video was those who are asking legit questions and clarifications are considered "Trolls". Insane.

Russ Ravella

Yup, gotta say … I watched a bit of that for some clarification and it's pretty clear the "troll" shoe is firmly on the other foot there.

Seems to me if Flex just released a revised announcement, loudly retracted the use of the term "subscription" and replacing it with something like, "New Feature Release Program" or whatever, then re-described things simply and clearly incorporating all the feedback they've gotten, the riot might die off.

I'm totally OK with paying for products received and I think that's more-or-less all this boils down to.

73 Russ KR6W

Dan Trainor

…"Retracted the use of the term "subscription" and replacing it with something like, "New Feature Release Program" or whatever, then re-described things simply and clearly"…

Exactly!

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I find the arguments for retracting the term “subscription” to be completely unconvincing.

Michael N3LI

I don't have an issue with the money on any of the plans. However - is Flex going to add an update that will accommodate all of the Windows computers that have ARM processors? The Mac Version runs perfectly on My M4 Mac mini. So it cannot be that difficult to provide drivers. Will my sending Flex money every year get this often requested feature?

OK2WY

Something is wrong here. Normally, software testers should be paid for their work. Instead, Flexradio wants money from them so they can test the software a month earlier?
An annual subscription for features that I don't even know if I'll need and if the manufacturer will add them at all? Why on earth should I pay for that?
I would accept a business model where feature 1 costs x USD, feature 2 costs y USD, etc. But buying a pig in a poke? Why?

Russ Ravella

I'm not sure it's wise to comment here but let me suggest something. Based on many of the comments it seems that variation in the ways people interpret the word "subscription" has a lot to do with the discontent. Forget the word "subscription".

Before this change, Flex charged $200 for major feature additions which always appeared in full version releases. They provided bug fixes and minor improvements between them for free. Then charged $200 for the next major feature additions in the next version release. These feature additions were very infrequent - after 15 years, we're only up to v3. But if you happened to pay for an update to say v2 six months before v3 was released, you'd have to pay $200 again to update to v3.

Now Flex is saying, we're still not going to charge for bug fixes even passing through version releases (to be fair, they really didn't before either since they usually provided bug fixes in the lower versions too shortly after those in the current version). You can always get the next version for free from now on. But we're still going to charge $200 for the feature addition part of new versions. And unlike before, that $200 will buy you any further feature additions including those in version releases for a year after that.

How much difference all of that is going to make seems to me to depend entirely on whether the real cadence of feature releases does indeed increase or not. If it doesn't, it won't make much difference. Flex continues to not produce improvements very often and we still don't pay for them not to. Personally, that seems like a bad thing to me.

If Flex does increase the rate of feature additions - which is a good thing, right ? a very good thing - people might be paying as much as $200 a year for them going forward. But in the past, they didn't exist at all at that rate. If they do now, people would have the choice to buy them or not. And they get a year's worth of them with each purchase if they do. I'm totally OK with paying people for work they perform. I expect to. And we only need to pay this $200 after they produce one or more feature updates we want. And then we get whatever additional features updates they produce for another year after that at no additional cost, unlike before. But if they don't produce feature updates we want, we don't pay anything -until they do.

One might suppose Flex wouldn't be making this change unless they actually intend to increase the rate of feature additions because they're not going to make any money on software now unless they do. Remember, they're not charging for version updates themselves anymore. They've separated feature additions out. If they don't produce them they don't get paid anything.

We've all been complaining that Flex has been very slow in adding features. So isn't this a good thing unless we expected them for free - which isn't reasonable or honest ? They seem to be saying, "Ok, we're going to start providing the feature additions you guys have been asking for but we have to pay engineers do create them so we have to charge for them". If that's correct, that's GREAT news to me !

The thing about charging another $100/ yr to become a beta tester is a totally different thing that really blows my mind. For that I've got nothing. But, there's nothing compelling anyone to do that so in a sense, who cares ?

Just some thoughts …

73 Russ KR6W

g4ivv

I agree, I think this new model is better than the previous licensing scheme. The only problem is the poor use of the term 'subscription' which in other contexts usaully means you have to keep paying to use it - but thats not the business model Flex have announced.

For me, I now get 4.0 for free and as soon as Flex release a feature that I'm interested in I pay $200 and get everything up to date plus 12 months of future new features. When that 12 months expires I wait until the next feature I want comes along and repeat.

If there's no new features I want, then I don't pay, nothing stops working and I still get all the latest bug fixes. Seems like a reasonable proposal to me!

I don't really understand all the angst being shown here?

Best 73,
Jonathan G4IVV

Trucker

I think not only removing Subscription, but removing " Annual Subscription " would help. Annual Subscription sounds too much like something that has to be renewed every year. It would be clearer if it was simply stated $199 ( SmartSDR+) buys you one year of features updates from the date of purchase. $299 SmartSDR+ Early Access) if you want to participate in the Early Access Program and receive new features 30 days prior to their release to SmartSDR+ and just like SmartSDR+ you will receive new features for a year from the date you purchase SmartSDR+ Early Access. And anytime after your year is up, you can purchase SmartSDR+ /Early Access, again and receive any new features that you may want. Plus, another full year from date of purchase of any new features released during that time.

To me, this would remove a lot of confusion. One thing that I feel would boost confidence in the new way of providing new features is to do the unthinkable ( in Flex Radio's mind) and provide some kind of roadmap of upcoming new features planned. I know they have had problems with customer complaints in the past when they did this. But, if they truly want to create customer excitement for this new way of handling adding new features and wanting customers to pay for them, then they need to provide some extra incentive that will encourage customers to buy into the new way of providing new features.

James

WD5GWY

George Moranian

How about your first year at a discount and see how that goes. Like others have said, will it be only one new feature or 10, 20…

George