Has Activation Helped?

Dec. 8, 2003

Activation, the extra work that a software vendor makes you go through to get their software to work in addition to the extremely long registration code, was introduced to help reduce piracy. Has it done it’s job? Maybe, but there have been unwanted side effects as well! 

In a recent eWeek article, Jim Rapoza discounts the idea of activation. Macromedia has recently moved to product activation, and made life more miserable for anyone who uses their products! 

In response to this article the author received emails from vendors and users alike. The vendors that emailed him were all for activation. Not a single one of the users that emailed him were for activation. So he wrote a follow up article. In it he asks, “Hey, software vendors, would you like to keep your customers happy and encourage new sales? Here’s how: Don’t put activation in your products, and if you’ve put it in, take it out”. 

What does all of this have to do with doing business? Well, what do we do, as business people, to make life easier for our customers rather than more difficult? Do we fall into the “activation” camp to protect our sales, or do we fall into the “user” camp trying our best to make life easier for those that make it possible for us to make a living?