I missed this news two weeks ago but apparently Intuit is selling Quicken, its consumer-grade financial tracking software. In fact Intuit is dumping all of their businesses except their tax filing package, TurboTax, and business-accounting package, Quickbooks. Quicken was Intuit’s original product. It was the centerpiece of their fight with Microsoft. Quicken was a huge deal in its day. I remember reading strategy books about it and Intuit’s rise as a company.

If it wasn’t clear before, traditional software sales are dead, and Intuit dumping Quicken is the final nail in that coffin. Microsoft has moved Office to subscription, so has Adobe with its Creative Suite. Intuit is focused on Quickbooks and TurboTax, both products that are perfect for subscriptions. These were the Big Three software companies when I first got in the business 18 years ago and every one of these products were sold for a one-time price at the local store. Now, none of them can be bought this way.

18 years ago I followed Intuit’s (and Microsoft’s) lead, developing reasonably priced software, selling it for a one-time + upgrades price. I think it’s high time I follow their lead again.