Over the past decade, the business world has had a real attraction to making everything a service. And rightly so. Would you rather struggle to repeatedly sell your product to the same customer? Or would it be better to offer it on a subscription model where you can keep improving it over time, and charge users a regular fee for using it?

However, if you compare the buying good ol’ products whenever you would need them, to subscription based services, a paradox seems to emerge.