Traditionally, Microsoft and most other software companies deliver software primarily by licensing "shrink-wrapped" products sold through retail channels or arrangements with hardware vendors. While a number of different pricing schemes for software licensing exist, customers typically pay a flat fee for perpetual use.

But new models of software pricing and distribution are becoming increasingly popular.

"Software as something you buy in a box is going away, because it's more efficient to deliver and update it through the network," says Werbach.

Quoted from a Wharton University Article entitled “Why Software Business Models of the Future Probably Won't Come in a Box” Published: February 7, 2007