Agreed, except there was something else in this article that was interesting. The presence of a free alternative was alluring enough to prevent people from making a deal they normally would make, if only for the sake of keeping the "freeness."
In theory, this royally screws up the idealogical basis of the freemium model. If the presence of the free option kept them from entering into any transaction with a cost, even if there was a clear benefit and the cost was low, that's a problem for freemium.
