Eweek’s Larry Seltzer points out that Symantec has continually raised prices of their Norton Antivirus updates over the year where he asks if only suckers renew?

In 2001 Symantec increased the price from $3.95 to $9.95, quite a large increase on its own. Just recently, coincident with the release of the 2006 versions of their security line of products, Symantec once again increased the price of the subscription renewal to $29.99. The new 2006 version of Norton Antivirus, of course including an annual subscription itself, costs $39.99. Symantec’s message is clear: you’re a sucker if you don’t upgrade the program. The only question is whether you’re a sucker for getting the new version too.

Wonder if the expenses to keep all the spam and scam away have made it really necessary for Symantec to keep increasing their prices or if this is more about increasing the bottom line? Neither of those realities, if true, are encouraging.

For those who may want to jump off the Symantec renewal price increase train, there are other, less expensive, alternative like AVG. Comcast Cable internet subscribers get for free — at least we did, anyway — McAffee Virus scan.

Bottom line is that we shouldn’t just renew services blindly; compare, shop around, see what others are using, etc. I did the math on my .Mac subscription recently and decided that $108+ USD per year was too much for what it offered considering my limited amount of use. Vote with your feet.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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