In the days gone by the phrase antivirus probably signified some new drug or hope for the human race. But of late, each time you mention the phrase antivirus, you will only catch the attention of computer geeks. But enhance the phrase by mentioning antivirus trial, and you will catch the attention of not only the computer fanatics, but the entire humanity as well!



Viruses, especially of the computer kind, are proliferating faster than their organic counterparts. These malicious programs, which probably started life as an innocent bit of code written by a programmer with a sense of humor, have evolved into rather frightening tools capable of making the most advanced IT infrastructure grind to a halt. This is why newer and newer antivirus programs are being written and introduced into the market all the time. But in keeping with the very nature of viruses, they are of little help in stopping all known, and as yet mutated versions.

This is where antivirus trial packages enter the marketplace. When a leading manufacturer of an antivirus program plans on introducing a new antivirus program into the market, the usual way to go about it is to offer an antivirus trial for customers. This antivirus trial not only enables the customers to evaluate the program, but the more advanced customers can actually test the antivirus trial against several kinds of known and unknown viruses that inhabit cyberspace and in some cases, may even be able to suggest certain tweaks and changes to the antivirus trial which will make it better.

This is just one of the functions of an antivirus trial. Another purpose it serves is to enable existing manufacturers of antivirus packages lose a share of their market. The conventional manufacturers like McAfee or Norton already have a big chunk of the marketplace tied up. But the inherent flaw in their antivirus trials is that they are customized to cater to the broadest base of the market. But some of the more highly specialized industries need custom built antivirus programs that address their specific needs. This is where the first release is often an antivirus trial geared to give exclusive customers a taste of the capabilities before building the entire package. Think of these sort of antivirus trial programs as random samples or evaluation versions that help customers isolate and demand development in those specific fields that actually impact their business.