Allowing people to try it for free would definitely help them attract potential users.
IMO they should just use a cookie to let you try it out for a couple of days, and then tell you that you need to buy the product. It's easy to circumvent, but a ton of people would just choose to pay for it.
I also think that they should have some kind of student pricing. Many students couldn't afford $15/month, but they might be able to afford $15/year.
Wolfram need to basically adopt the model that Adobe unofficially has ie. don't stress too much about users pirating your software, because they'll become so dependent on it that when they go and use it in industry they'll demand enterprise licenses.
Except Wolfram should just restore Wolfram Alpha to its once free glory (instead of the annoying nagware that it's become) and also offer this Wolfram cloud stuff at a reduced price.
The end goal for them should be to convince people that they need to purchase Mathematica. Pricing at $15/month means they're only really attracting existing Mathematica users who want the convenience of the cloud when they're away from their primary machine.
I'm a SymPy developer, but I'd probably pay $15/year just to test different things so I could compare results. I won't pay $15/month, though. Especially since other developers have access to it, mainly through their university.
IMO they should just use a cookie to let you try it out for a couple of days, and then tell you that you need to buy the product. It's easy to circumvent, but a ton of people would just choose to pay for it.
I also think that they should have some kind of student pricing. Many students couldn't afford $15/month, but they might be able to afford $15/year.