The Problem with Salesforce: API access not available to all clients

Allow API Access for Professional Edition - Charge for Usage

There are many PE users like myself that only need API access and not the other features of Enterprise Edition. Most API services for other companies are free or are charged on a usage basis. During the last session of Dreamforce this idea was brought up and many people seemed interested.

on 'developerforce'

My comment:

In addition to all these people already using Salesforce and capable of using the API on the Professional edition, there is a huge market of potential Salesforce users who would use it in conjunction with their content management system powered web site if the extra fee were $20 a month, for one account to have access to the API, rather than an across-the-board upgrade to Enterprise. We (Agaric Design Collective) recently overhauled the Salesforce module for Drupal – open source free software that allows non-enterprises to use enterprise-level features (they would never have to code a line). But use would also be very light compared to enterprise clients. Professional access to the API is needed, and soon! I'd love tot talk about this more.
benjamin, Agaric Design Collective