NIH #25 – Infinite amount of something
We all love getting infinite amount of something for a small fee. That makes all the “unlimited” plans so popular. On practice, however, those plans fairly quickly turn out not to be unlimited, infinite or lifetime and there are reasons why.
Using “unlimited” in marketing materials has its benefits:
- it gives perception that buyer gets a lot (infinite amount that is) while paying way less than that
- it eliminates questions like “will it be enough for …?” making the purchasing decision easier
But nothing is truly unlimited or infinite:
- from the business perspective finite payment for infinite access to a certain resource or service cannot cover cost of providing that service in the long run
- from the engineering standpoint creating an illusion of infinity using finite building blocks that are in our disposal an enormous challenge. An example of that is Microsoft dropping unlimited OneDrive storage after people use it for unlimited storage
When you are offered something unlimited for a limited fee, ask yourself “where is the limit?”.
