New Delhi, Feb. 6 -- For long, every new generation of technology hardware has been meaningfully better than the last. The upgrade cycle was predictable, and consumers willingly paid a premium for the next big leap. But that era is fading. As hardware innovation slows and replacement cycles stretch, tech companies are searching for new ways to keep revenue flowing. Their answer is increasingly clear: subscriptions. Not just for services, but for unlocking capabilities that already exist inside the hardware you've purchased. Consumers are discovering that the devices they own are not fully theirs unless they pay a recurring fee. And the backlash is growing.

When the subscription economy first took off, it made intuitive sense. Cloud stora...