use of a maintenance contract ...

When you think of it, a maintenance contract is a lot like insurance. They're betting that it won't be valuable to you, or they'd lose money. You're betting that the product you just bought won't work very well, so you're covering your ass by paying _more_ in the hope that if the original purchase was no good, at least maybe the maintenance contract will turn out to be.

Strange world we live in :-)

You won't get any software updates without one.....or new releases. If you've got a 'bad' datecode (2003160 comes to mind) you're stuck with it.