A software firm has chosen to implement a differentiation strategy, offering its product in a Software as a Service $($SaaS$)$ platform with a monthly subscription. Most of the firm's competitors are selling their products as a one$-$time purchase. Which of the following represents the greatest risk to the strategy?

There's a shortage of technical workers to maintain the software platform, causing human resources to increase wages to attract quality employees.

An established competitor has announced it will begin offering its programs in a SaaS model next quarter.

As the number of users increases, the company will need to invest resources to scale the SaaS platform.

The biggest competitor in this software market is slashing its prices to below the company's annual rate.