We were told yesterday that a major company will now lease the license for the software/firmware on total stations. Anyone else hear this? Wouldn't that mean that your instrument wouldn't work if you didn't pay the subscription fee?
Me. "What's the difference?"
T.C. Carroll "It's the difference between right and wrong!"
Depends on the wording. If it works the same way as Trimble use for their software then the instrument will still work but effectively won't be supported. If you want to change things later then you would have to pay a substantial proportion of the "yearly" license fees you have avoided paying in the past.
So yes, there is a saving, but the downside is that when you need it - which will undoubtably be in a hurry - there will be a large fee to pay. If you haven't budgeted for this then you might find it isn't worthwhile. The company is gambling that you won't just replace the instrument with one from another manufacturer, but stick with their brand because of familiarity and the fact that you are under pressure and don't want to risk having to learn a new style of instrument.
I'm not sure if anyone still gives free firmware upgrades, at least on instruments that aren't under some kind of warranty or maintenance contract. I would suspect that the "lease" verb age has more to do with their accounting than it does with the maintenance of the software. It's extremely unlikely that they'd build something into it that would cause it to stop working; more likely you just won't be able to update it if you don't pay the lease. But I would absolutely contact my dealer or direct rep for a clarification.