The problem with usage based pricing, and this is always the problem - is that no one ever mentions any 'insurance' or coverage for lost productivity due to poor software design, condition or support.

If I buy a car that is a lemon, I am protected. I can even file suit against a company that sells me something less than what they promised - but somehow, in software, we have lost this ethos and therefore our standards of "quality software" have always been very low going back as far as I can remember.

There is one product I have in mind, and though I wont mention it (much), let me be Crystal clear that this product is a piece of garbage, poorly documented, horribly supported and it has cost my staff and clients countless hours of productivity and that is AFTER we paid an outrageous license fee for nothing more than a name. What recourse do I have? Virtually none.

I would never advocate usage based pricing until the software industry joins so many others and ensures some base level of quality. We do this with food, automobiles, homes, commercial office space, business equipment and so much more - its time for software to have at least that. If a software company sells garbage and costs productivity, they should be liable for that.

Doing that one thing would raise the level of quality to standards we have never seen since the PC revolution itself.