FWIW, in the medical field licensing is rampant as well. Purchase a $600k piece of hardware, and you can still spend another $200k on licensing for options. No hardware changes at all. Marquee cars? Buy a Porsche Cayman and check the 'sport plus' option and that'll set you back another $1k or so. The auto industry is rife with performance tuning of the same engine based on what model it's going in. Again, no hardware change... just licensing via firmware or software. The engine in my car makes 80hp less than when placed in a different model (Granted, that model MSRP's for about $40k more. And that's the point). Adobe? I miss the days of lump summing a purchase and then using it for 2-3 years.
Vendors across all fields have recognized that the money is in the software/firmware/maintenance. The initial purchase is just the hook to get you onboard. The degree to which profit swings from hardware to software varies by field of course. But as the top vendors in a field collectively swing towards a new paradigm, the consumer is left with little option unless they want to get out of the mainstream and start buying 'third party' or startup stuff.
Everything is 'buyer beware'. Why pay one of these websites $95 for 24hr turnaround on getting an EIN from the federal government? This is something you can do yourself right from the IRS website for free and in about 20 minutes (or was it $5?) Can't remember. Some pay because they have no idea they can do it themselves, or they simply just want to pay and have it done for them. But when there are no alternatives (such as in the case with DJI and the discussed features), you choose 'pay to play' or not. I'm sure there are also some economies of scale and logistics involved with supporting 1 camera vs. 2 that helps drive their decision.
As an aside story, we once discovered that Land Rover found it cheaper to install heated seats in all their Discovery II vehicles for awhile; they just didn't install the switch wiring unless the heated seat option was purchased. Once the community figured it, switch sales somehow went through the roof.
Vendors across all fields have recognized that the money is in the software/firmware/maintenance. The initial purchase is just the hook to get you onboard. The degree to which profit swings from hardware to software varies by field of course. But as the top vendors in a field collectively swing towards a new paradigm, the consumer is left with little option unless they want to get out of the mainstream and start buying 'third party' or startup stuff.
Everything is 'buyer beware'. Why pay one of these websites $95 for 24hr turnaround on getting an EIN from the federal government? This is something you can do yourself right from the IRS website for free and in about 20 minutes (or was it $5?) Can't remember. Some pay because they have no idea they can do it themselves, or they simply just want to pay and have it done for them. But when there are no alternatives (such as in the case with DJI and the discussed features), you choose 'pay to play' or not. I'm sure there are also some economies of scale and logistics involved with supporting 1 camera vs. 2 that helps drive their decision.
As an aside story, we once discovered that Land Rover found it cheaper to install heated seats in all their Discovery II vehicles for awhile; they just didn't install the switch wiring unless the heated seat option was purchased. Once the community figured it, switch sales somehow went through the roof.