Motherboard has an interesting look at the somewhat surprising survival of physical software in shrink-wrapped boxes, which continues to account for roughly a third of software sales.
This is true even though in most cases the boxes contain little or nothing.
Most of these physical packages are virtually empty, with only a tiny piece of paper inside with a download link and an activation code. Companies who sell software this way (say) that including a DVD is often a useless endeavor, as new laptops lack optical drives. Even when companies do sell physical media, users would still need to download the latest version of the software, as opposed to the one that’s on the optical disk.
Consumer behavior expert Deborah MacInnis at the University of Southern California (says) that fear might be at the core of the phenomenon of buying software in physical boxes. “[It’s a] fear that something will go wrong and consumers will need to prove that they actually bought the product,” she said.
Other theories? The boxes serve as in-store advertising, help with resales and gamers like to collect them.
And while not a part of any software maker’s marketing strategy, there is another group that remains thankful for the continued sale of packaged software: shoplifters. Our local newspaper, The MetroWest Daily News, recently reported on the theft of $2,800 in software from the nearby Natick Mall, which caught my attention in part because I wouldn’t have thought such a heist would be even possible these days.
Wrong.
