Number two certainly benefits the consumer, speaking as a consumer. Back in the old days you had the choice of paying hundreds of dollars for some software, then hundreds more for the next version, then hundreds more for the next one and so on. And if you wanted to try it but wasn't sure you'd actually use it, you either had to pray there was a demo or pay the full price and deal with the consequences.

Microsoft Office, for example. $250 license cost every three years, or $99/year for the SaaS model. If you want to try it, you pay $10 for a month and if you don't like it you lost $10 rather than $250. And if you subscribe long term, the SaaS version's pricing is very much on par with the old style of selling software.