LogMeIn: We're stopping our free offering from, errrm, NOW

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/21/users_wail_as_logmein_drops_free_service/

 

they got 10 years of free service.
what are they complaining about?

they could have given a longer notice though.
a month or 2 would have been more appropriate.

 

Another product, down the tubes. I would bet they will instantly lose 90% of their installed user base.

LogMeIn was problematic. My son used it, and found it was throttling his bandwidth by up to 50%, even when it wasn't being used, and even when properly 'tweaked'. He ended up uninstalling it due to these, and a few other issues.

Anyway, taking products away, ruining them, or turning them into fee-based residual products seems to be 'all the rage' these days, and it's disheartening. For me, I refuse to use residual fee based products in most cases, and will continue using the last vestiges of lifetime ones. Which is why I purchased a good number of MBAM, Admuncher, Sandboxie types of licenses before they went away.

 

In a small business environment, LMI is quite nice. As affordable as anything I've seen that also supports mobile devices. We will continue to use it.

Do I like the fact the free time is gone? No. But realistically, I should have no complaint. And I don't. (Thanks for the free time while it lasted!)

For personal use, the excellent free TeamViewer is still available. So truthfully, no harm done (IMO.)

 

It creates a positive reputation. That reputation slowly increases and expands via word of mouth. You then use that reputation to offer a paid service with improvements, whilst keeping the free version and that reputation.

Reputation is everything. Destroying it with a move like this makes me wonder who they've been hiring recently.

 

Not when competitors are offering same product for free. They also only gave seven days period to notify customers.

 

That model seems to work for some apps like free AVs, but maybe it wasn't working for LogMeIn? The problem is once you offer an app for free there's no easy way to withdraw it - some people are going to be unhappy. Still, I'd like to think that "reputation" is based more on how well a product works.

 

Agreed, and this is one major vector of business. I've developed/sold/marketed hundreds of products (including software/hardware) over the years. In the business world 'comping' something can pay huge dividends.

For example my friend owns a high end sports bar. New menus cost him $7,000.00 to print each time he changes his offerings. Instead, he cut a deal by putting 'select' drink mixes, using specific brands of drinks on the menu, and the liquor companies comp him the cost of the new menus.

The 'here try this', and 'if you like it, try upgrading for this' method really works, and can make millions. BillP is a good example with WinPatrol, that thing literally bought him a mansion on a lake.

LogMeIn literally lost their entire customer base over night. Their approach was flawed to the extreme.

 

Can you document that?

 

Only anecdotally.. My son was part of a large gamer group, and everyone ditched it immediately. That's about it, and that's only a sampling of several hundred people.

Otherwise, consider it speculation, nothing more. But those gamers aren't likely to ever pay for anything, especially with other alternatives.

 

It seems like they decided the freemium model wasn't working to their advantage. We don't have the data to see the conversion rate so we can't really judge whether this is a good move or not. I wonder how many of their free users would choose to pay and how many would switch over to another free offering.

 

i love a free ride as much as the next guy but sometimes it' s worth supporting software with money.

servers and bandwidth ain't free, not to mention developing the software.