Charlie Griefer wrote: "Bundling it with FlashBuilder may be their way of trying to increase the uptake of the language as a whole and thus ultimately sell more server licenses. By doing this, they're potentially introducing CF to PHP developers, Java developers, etc."
I have to say that I don't agree with that last statement. FlashBuilder 4 (Standard Edition) with CFBuilder costs $299, and FlashBuilder 4 (Standard Edition) without CFBuilder costs $249. So for an existing PHP/Flex developer who has no use for CF, do you think they're going to pay $299 to get an extra IDE for a language they don't use, or spend $50 less and just get the IDE they need? thanks, eric cobb ecar technologies, llc http://www.cfgears.com Charlie Griefer wrote: > On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Mary Jo Sminkey > <mary...@cfwebstore.com>wrote: > > >>> The cost has to do with Adobe being a publicly traded company needing to >>> generate revenue and hopefully post a profit. The cost would therefore >>> >> more >> >>> likely be based on the amount of effort (time/money) involved in >>> >> developing >> >>> (research, planning, developing, testing, marketing) the product. >>> >> A lot of us hoped they would see that selling it a lower price point would >> help to increase the uptake of the language as a whole and thus ultimately >> sell more server licenses. For a large company like Adobe, profit is what >> the company makes as a whole, not what one product alone brings in. >> Microsoft learned this a long time ago and has used free and low-priced >> items to increase their revenue in other areas, and it's certainly a large >> reason for their success. >> >> > > Bundling it with FlashBuilder may be their way of trying to increase the > uptake of the language as a whole and thus ultimately sell more server > licenses. By doing this, they're potentially introducing CF to PHP > developers, Java developers, etc. Everyone who uses Flex but doesn't use CF > on the server side. > > I'm not exactly sure that selling it at a lower price point would have the > same effect. It'd appeal to those of us who currently use ColdFusion... > we'd conceivably be able to buy the product for $199 instead of $299. Ok... > but I don't see where that would necessarily increase the uptake of the > language as a whole. > > >> I also think their move to bundle CFBuilder with FlashBuilder -is- >> >>> encouraging developers. It's encouraging me to make the foray into Flex, >>> which is something that I've wanted to do for a while now. >>> >> Not if the price discourages me from even buying the product in the first >> place. >> >> > > But you're already a ColdFusion developer. If I wanted to buy FlexBuilder 3 > last year, I'd have paid $299 (i think... it was certainly in that > neighborhood). So we know that Flex developers are willing to pay that > amount. They're going to pay the same thing this year, and get ColdFusion > Builder. Adobe is pretty much giving it away to the Flex community in hopes > of doing what you say... increase the uptake of the language as a whole. > > We CF folk.. we pay a little bit more than the $199 we hoped it would be, > and get FlashBuilder. So not only is Adobe conceivably introducing CF to > other developers, but it's conceivably introducing Flex/FlashBuilder to us. > > I'm sorry that people think $300 is too expensive. I know that "expensive" > is a subjective term, and while some people can whip out their credit cards > and order a copy without a second thought, some of us will have to save up > for it. But as has been pointed out... if you use the product for a year > (and it really shouldn't even take a year), how much time are you going to > save... how much more productive could you possibly be? > > Maybe the answer is, "not enough". In which case... there are alternatives > (CFEclipse and others). For me, I think it'd be enough (I'm currently using > TextMate on Mac as my IDE... so I don't really have a horse in this race, so > to speak). I've used the beta of CFBuilder tho, and I can see where it'd > save me time. I run multiple CF8 and CF9 instances on my dev machine. > Generally one at a time... not having to jump out of the IDE, into > terminal, stop one service, start the next, back to the IDE... instead I can > just open up the servers pane in CFBuilder, stop one service, start the > other. Code insight, extensible via writing extensions in CF (-not- > Java)... I think I'd make my $300 back in under a year, and probably end the > year being up a few bucks. > > I get that it's not going to be for everybody. It's not going to work for > everybody. I just wish folks could be more pragmatic about it and say, > "yeah, it doesn't work for me... but I can see where they're going with it". > > Charlie > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:332099 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm