First, thanks to Charlie for his overview.  While I received my package today I haven’t yet installed it.

I’m a bit of mixed emotions on this, especially as I’m a member of the IDN (Intuit Developer Network).  I know there’s a huge push for the IPP (Intuit Partner Platform), but I’m not convinced.  A variety of thoughts.

• Cloud v. Local storage.  I can imagine a lot of people may have second thoughts on handing control of crucial business documents to a Web App.
• “Airline Pillow Fee” mentality.  I think a lot of people are going to, if they are not already, begrudge a nickel-and-dime approach.  Heck, while it’s a different model, look at people’s angst over whether or not they should buy a $0.99 app for the iPhone.  They like the features of the paid app, but stick with the free app because, well, it’s free.  It’s not like payroll where you are processing monthly — it’s storage; and it’s not an area that, again like payroll, requires a significant amount of work staying on top of all the various taxation jurisdictions rates of tax.
• I was stunned to read that you cannot download a copy of your documents to a local drive.  Perhaps there is a way around this — as mentioned I haven’t installed 2010 yet — because if you can print it to hard copy, you can print it to PDF.
• This being stunned turned to horror when I read that if you stop paying for the service you will lose access to your documents.  (I’m guessing you can’t lose access if you never exceed the 100 MB storage limit for free usage.)  So you decide to stop the service, but can’t download your documents?  Wow.
• While you may have access to the documents from any web connected computer, you may not be able to view them (e.g., unless Excel 2007 is installed on the web connected computer, you won’t be able to view *.xlsx files).
• How many people will even think to clean up their tracks on “any web connected computer” once they are finished?  For example, if you are in a hotel data center viewing documents, will people think to address the issue of their private company documents possibly being stored on that hotel’s data center computer’s cache?
• You can buy a external 500 GB HD (e.g., the WD Passport) for $100; buy two to have redundancy and slip it in your pocket at the end of the day to have “offsite storage” and you’re out $200.  $200 for 500 GB, compared with $179.40 per year for 1 GB or $359.40 per year for 5 GB.

More thoughts later after I install my own copy.