Turbotax 2002's activation cost Intuit $100 million

Everything else
#1

http://business20.com/articles/web/0,1653,49577,00.html

Two different lines of thought will emerge from this:

  1. Activation sucks. Using it causes people to not buy products.
  2. Activation is ok, its just that intuit did such a piss poor job of it.
#2

I think #2. No question that future software will increasingly require server-side activation to function.

Not a surprise, as the only viable way to put a dent in PC game piracy is to require a server-side key for multiplayer.

#3

I vote #2. Product activation will continue to be pursued. Companies just won’t make a big botch out out of it like Intuit did.

They picked C-Dilla as their mechanism. Perhaps choosing a product that didn’t have a past history of being spyware might have been a good idea.

Telling customers that the inability to easily get rid of the C-Dilla infestation was a benevolent feature for customers benefit was a bad bit of spin.

Forgetting to inform their phone support staff about possible problems with activation resulted in a lot of customers basically being told they would have to purchase another copy of the software after a hard drive replacement or other fault that screwed up the registration information.

Squirrelling the registration in a secret part of the hard drive inaccessible to ordinary programs certainly made people feel confident that the product activation was benign.

#4

I switched to TaxCut this year (a painless switch, I might add) entirely due to the activation scheme, although I normally would prefer to purchase an Intuit product over a Microsoft one.

There is every chance that I won’t go back to Intuit next year, even if their product activation is less onerous. I’m sure my response isn’t that unusual, so Intuit is going to take a revenue hit from this for years to come.

#5

I did exactly the same thing. It was completely painless, and it also removed any second thoughts I would have about using TaxCut in the future. MS needs to send Intuit some flowers or something.

#6

Did MS buy TaxCut? I’ve used it for years but didn’t notice that this year.

I saw MS came out with their own tax package one year (just a year or two ago), but it didn’t look like they followed with a second version. It was on the shelves far too late for me to consider it the year I saw it - I figured that was a big part of the reason it tanked. I buy mine in January at the latest.

#7

MS has a deal with H&R Block. Click for details. MS dumped their TaxSaver software after entering the agreement with Block.

#8

Roger that. I feel exactly the same. There is no huge reason to go back. I just want my tax software to calculate the numbers and have all the forms.

#9

I vote 1.

Even people who don’t have a choice with their upgrades - like with Windows XP - resisted the switch. I believe if XP wasn’t so solid and fully fleshed out, it would have been a disappointment on the scale of Windows Me.

#10

Same here.