Digital Delivery?

shopboom

On the one hand piracy and the word 'illegal' is so often associated with downloading software, while on the other there is the stigma of shareware having malware, or freeware being crapware.

It's no wonder that digital delivery, aka electronic software distribution, is so slow to take hold, even with the green movement behind it!

There have been some recent studies showing the significant savings in greenhouse gases, but don't forget there's also the savings in time (since no need to wait for the delivery truck), and usually savings in money (since there's less cost of packaging and distribution.

With all these things going for it, why aren't more vendors doing it?

AND, why can't I find a directory which just lists digital products, especially software?

If anyone is familiar with such a compendium of sites, please let me know, thanks!

Ben84

If you want to get software this way, linux and the programs that use it are almost all delivered this way. Actual retail packaging and disks are rare, and I'm not aware of any that do not have download over the internet as their major distribution method.

paulwf

There is plenty of commercial software available for download, it's been years since I purchased anything on CD/DVD and that is for Windows.

Now that netbooks are getting common the shift to download versions is increasing as they don't have a DVD drive so having a product on DVD is useless unless you have a separate DVD drive which most people don't have.

There will probably always be some boxed products as commercial software regularly comes in near the 100 meg mark which would require decent broadband to download, and the PC World assistants are very good at scaring computer buyers into buying boxed antivirus products.

forgotmyname

LOTS of online stores have digital download sections.

greenbee

Electronic software delivery (ESD) now makes up approximately 80% of software deliveries to businesses. Retail software is catching up slowly, but consumers still tend to prefer to have a box, CD/DVD etc. Software publishers are very keen on ESD as it costs them almost nothing to sell each copy - no box, no shipping, no manual, no media production costs. It is therefore much quicker for them to recover the cost of their investment in software development.

Music, film and audio books are also available via electronic delivery. As long as you buy from reputable sites there is no risk of you being supplied with counterfeits, or of your payment details being misused.