It turns out that software rental has universal appeal. The author recalls the advent of the PC, nearly two decades ago. Its creators and proponents saw it as a cut-down version of the larger, more serious computers then used by big business. They believed it could play a valuable role in bringing business computing within the budget range of smaller enterprises - organisations who, many felt, were not in the right league to buy serious computers from industry leaders like DEC, Data General, Wang and others. We now know how all their preconceptions were overturned by what followed.
History is about to repeat itself.
Outsourced apps are all over the Net Even though no-one stops to think about it, the habit of outsourcing applications is already deeply ingrained in the everyday routine of the Internet. Whenever anyone uses a search engine, calls up a stock index chart or checks the weather, they are taking advantage of an application that someone else has installed, set up and maintains on the net for their benefit. These services are not provided out of charity. However much its early partisans denigrate the commercialisation of the Internet, most people acknowledge that it is not possible to have a networked economy without money changing hands. Even though many application services appear to be free on the Web, what is actually happening is that those services are being provided for payment that has been either displaced or deferred.