Damaged Good - Computer Software

Computer Software

Deliberately limited programs are usually freeware versions of computer programs that lack the most advanced (or even crucial) features of the original program. Limited versions are made available in order to increase the popularity of the full program without giving it away free. An example of crippleware is a word processor that cannot save or print. However, crippleware programs can also differentiate between tiers of paying software customers.

The term "crippleware" is sometimes used to describe software products whose functions have been limited (or "crippled") with the sole purpose of encouraging or requiring the user to pay for those functions (either by paying a one-time fee or an on-going subscription fee).

The less derogatory term, from a shareware software producer's perspective is feature-limited. Feature limited is just one form to market shareware as a damaged good as are time-limited, usage-limited, capacity-limited, nagware and output-limited. From the producers standpoint, feature-limited allows customers to try software with no commitment instead of relying on questionable reviews and possibly staged reviews. Try before you buy applications are very prevalent for mobile devices with the additional damaged good of ad-displays as well as all of the other forms of damaged good applications.

From an Open Source software providers perspective there is the model of open core which includes a feature-limited version of the product and an open core version. The feature-limited version can be used widely like MySQL, Eucalyptus and Fedora.

There are several types of deliberately limited programs:

• The full program with the features disabled; this type can be "unlocked" into a fully functional version of the software, usually via a serial number. One such example of this is the Adobe Creative Suite 4 trial downloads.
• A special trial version of the program that does not even include the executable code for the disabled features. In this case, only users who buy a licence are given access to another version of the program, which is fully functional. An example of this is NoLimits, which has all the functions of the normal program, but without the ability to save tracks, or import RCT1 tracks, this is not included inside the exe code and requires another version.
• The functionality of the software or hardware is permanently compromised from full functionality due to third party agreements. An example is Hulu, which only allows free playback of some content through traditional web browsers on computers.
• The vendor includes a clause that features time limits to mar functionality. For example, the freeware version of Fraps has in-game video recording time restricted to 30 seconds, and with a Fraps logo on the video.
• Many consumer-end laptop computers are made to support only one version of Microsoft Windows by limiting production of device drivers for that model for only the particular operating system. Often this is done to limit the operating system used on the computer to the one that came packaged with it. Sometimes several versions of a particular laptop model are made with differing amounts of driver support for operating systems, such as in Toshiba Satellite computers.
• A handful of Web app developers (H&R Block, Disney, and AT&T, to name a few) tend to use OS autodetection and other tactics to deliberately tie their Web apps to specific operating systems or browsers.
• The program is released under an open core licensing model, wherein a limited feature version is released under an open source software license while a fully featured version is released under a proprietary software license. In this scenario the limited featured version is the damaged good. MySQL, Eucalyptus, StarOffice and others use this model to market an "enterprise" version with additional features see open core for more details.
• Certain software features are not included in an early product to promote sales of a later one. For example, Apple's firmware for the third generation iPod Nano supports video playback while their firmware for the second generation iPod Nano does not. However, Rockbox firmware has demonstrated the second generation's hardware is capable of MPEG video playback.

To create a limited program usually requires the manufacturer or author to take active steps to reduce the capabilities that the hardware or software could otherwise handle. For example, Windows Vista Starter is restricted to running a maximum of three concurrent applications beyond those specified by Microsoft as basic system requirements.