So what exactly is the business model/reason the "name brand" A-Vs give them away

after rebate? With less than two months left on my Norton subscription, my new Norton CD has arrived that I purchased from Newgg this week. I'll wait until the last day then enter the new license number. It was $40 but with the Symantec prepaid $40 Visa, $0. This is the third year in a row!
The next few days Newegg followed with AVG, McAfee and two others I noticed. Since December (When again I started to pay attention as my Norton was winding down.) I noticed whole suites from Norton, Kaspersky, etc. were offered free after rebate.
So, a) Do they assume % will never claim the rebate? b) They'll get your renewal $ next year? c) The number of subscribers is a significant advertising point? d) More subscribers greater potential to identify the next threat and get it into their data base? e) None of the above? f) All of the above?

 

I don't know about these, but at one of the last places I worked, sales would skyrocket (for the day) when we'd do giveaways. A number of them were an upgraded version, but there would also be an unusually high number of sales for the same version.