Digitally downloaded software grows in popularity

Nearly two-thirds of software bought online is delivered via digital downloads, rather than on discs that came in the mail, according to an NPD Group report released Tuesday.

“People’s comfort with downloading software online has grown and will continue to grow,” NPD analyst Stephen Baker said. “It’s kind of a halo effect from things like Netflix and iTunes, things that got people to trust the idea of buying things online.

“More and more people are leaving the product boxes behind.”

But that trust goes only so far. Only 5% of people surveyed for the report said they would be willing to allow online merchants to automatically update their software when upgrades were available.

“People like being asked before giving away their money again,” Baker said. “While there are a lot of good reasons why something like security software should be on an automatic-renewal program, the fact is most consumers don’t feel comfortable having something automatically charged to their credit cards every year or two, or however long.”

Overall, the study, which surveyed about 4,000 consumers, found that 65% of software purchased online was downloaded. That’s slightly up from 63% in a survey taken last year.

New purchases accounted for 23% of the downloaded software purchases, while renewals were 34%. An additional 8% were from the conversion of trial to paid software. That left 35% that came on old-fashioned discs.

nathan.olivarezgiles@latimes.com