Software Warehouse offers downloads

Software Warehouse this morning said it planned to open the doors to its Download Shop today at noon, allowing buyers to make software purchases online.

The firm will offer software from Lotus, Symantec, IMSI, Corel and others, but won't include Microsoft products on its virtual shelves for now.

"We think Microsoft will come in eventually but they don't really have a product that fits this model at the moment," said Steve Bennett, chairman. "We think initial customers will be consumers but long-term it will be corporate because it makes it easy to track software metering and purchasing."

Download Shop will focus primarily on small footprint products, typically of about 3Mb or 4Mb, to ease download pains. Users purchase by credit card with their details routed to Barclay's Merchant Server for verification. Encrypted software is downloaded and then unlocked after payment has been accepted.

Bennett said prices will be 30-40 per cent lower than normal but products won't ship with manuals or media.