Usage-Based Billing Might be Good for Many Enterprise and Consumer Users

Gartner analyst Robert Desisto notes that suppliers of software as a service (SaaS) for the enterprise continue to resist to the move to “pay as you go” because it will have a very big impact on their business model predictability. 

As understandable as that is, SaaS suppliers are vulnerable to viable suppliers willing to offer true "on demand" pricing where users pay on a "usage" basis.

Oddly enough, that's the model some policy advocates think is so detrimental for consumer users. To be sure, there would be winners and losers in a "usage-based" enterprise software market, as there certainly would be in a "usage-based" consumer market for Internet access.

Some lighter users would be better off with usage-based billing. Heavy users would pay more.