Why is it that support agreements are not emphasized by publishers of off-the-shelf software?
Off-the-shelf software products are typically sold to a mass market. Their publishers are large companies that expect to (and must) sell millions of copies of the software – something which can never happen with industry-specific software, because entire market universe is so much smaller. With off-the-shelf software, revenue from sales may at least partially cover support and/or development costs, but neither are free.
