Per-Use Licensing Tested

Microsoft’s first experiment with per-use licensing gets underway at the end of November, when New York customers of easyEverything, a chain of Internet cafes in Europe and North America, will be able to rent Microsoft Encarta, Office, or Works for less than US$2 a visit.

The market trial will give Microsoft an opportunity to explore per-use licensing and should provide valuable data about consumer acceptance of per-use rentals and software delivered as a service.

Customers at easyEverything Internet cafes pay approximately US$1.50 (the London-based chain states its fee as £1, or its equivalent in local currency) to use a PC for a period of time that varies from 20 minutes to six hours, depending on how busy the cafe is when they arrive. According to easyEverything, customers will be able to pay another US$1.50 to use one of the Microsoft products for the same period of time. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed, leaving open the question of how much of that money goes to Microsoft.