Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Insightful

In "Free: The Future of the Radial Price" Anderson delves into the phenomena of companies succeeding on giving away their product, or services, for free. He states that more and more companies are offering things for free, and that in order for other companies to remain profitable and relevant they will eventually have to get on board this same way of thinking, and doing business. In today's world of technology and online services, getting something for free is an every day practice. Once customers are exposed to the companies wares, or services then they may be more willing to purchase from them again. Free products are not to be looked at as cheap, throw aways, but something of value. Customers expect these free 'samples' to work properly and be something that is of value to them. While Anderson foresees a future where more and more things are given to the public for free, I do not think this will occur in the too near future.
I think Anderson did a great job showing the evolution of the idea of 'Free.' He was able to show that while this practice may be more popular now, it is definitely not a new idea. His examples, such as Jell-o and Ryan Air showed how this idea has been used successfully for decades. These examples were valuable to me, as it allowed me to apply this concept to ideas beyond those of digital media, where it is easier, and cheaper, to give things away for free. While there is an increase of 'Free' in the marketplace, I think this is mainly due to the ever increasing use of digital media, email, and the internet. I think it is hard to imagine a totally free world, as Anderson says is the future, as there are many companies where this idea isn't as easily executed as it is with music and email.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Thought provoking

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Love Wired but bored by Anderson's books.

I should have stopped reading after the prologue. Here, Chris Anderson describes two types of critics wary of his idea that economies can be built upon giving consumers something for "free". He found distinct responses based upon age; the older critics thought there was no such thing as free, there had to be a "catch" and they would eventually end up paying while the younger generation thought, "duh"- yes, free does work and products are built, bought and sold based on this model. For me, "duh" accurately describes how I feel about this book. According to Anderson, I am a member of "the Google generation who grew up on the internet", therefore this free concept is not foreign or new to me. For most of my life, free has factored into many, if not all, of my purchases. I get a free cell phone, but I pay for monthly service. When shopping online, I get free shipping if I spend a certain amount. In fact, I am less likely to purchase something online unless shipping is free. I refuse to download an iphone app that's not free.
While I didn't enjoy most of the book, the history of how "free" business models came to be was mildly entertaining. Some of the sidebars where Anderson describes his thoughts on how things like college education, textbooks, and even cars can be free were interesting. Since I work in IT, I found some of the digital and internet history to be interesting as well even though some of it elicited another "duh" response. Companies spend money on expensive servers and hardware but can host thousands of customers for next to nothing. Duh. Doing things like this is what gives software companies a competitive advantage over those who require each customer to purchase their own hardware in addition to software. I like articles in Wired, but don't want to read them as expanded versions in books.

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