Hi Sally, Please see this message thread: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/openoffice-dev/201302.mbox/%3CCAP-ksoiJx5QqRvAQpHTJJ2_VasPCji9gTi4R3PH8bg_ntwkJ9A%40mail.gmail.com%3E
Rob is working on a blog post, but I think that this is something worthy of an ASF press release as it shows substantial value provided to the public. Thanks and Regards, Dave On Feb 6, 2013, at 12:42 PM, Rob Weir wrote: > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: >> Yes, yes, we're a non-profit organization. We don't charge for Apache >> OpenOffice. We don't pay developers. But we still do produce >> something of value, and that value can be estimated. >> >> People need office productivity software. The main alternative to >> OpenOffice is Microsoft Office, perhaps the "Home and Student" >> edition. The latest version (2013) sells for $139.99 on Amazon. This >> is for the downloadable version. >> > > So I'm thinking more on this, and there is an assumption here that the > price I pay for Office in the US is the same as anyone else pays > around the world. But this is unlikely to be true. This is a classic > example of where the fixed costs are in the development and are high, > and the variable costs are in the media and distribution and are very > low. So a global vendor's optimal strategy is to adjust the pricing > country-by-country or region-by-region, to maximize their profits. > They can drop the prince in some countries and raise it in others > based on ability to pay. > > I'd love to have some help exploring the magnitude of these > differences, to see if they are significant. Let's use the price > Microsoft quotes for "Home and Student 2013". We want the 1PC > perpetual license, not the per-year subscription price. > > Start from here: http://office.microsoft.com. I had to then go to > "Products", "For Home" and "Learn more". > > When I check the US price I get $139.99 > > When I check the German site (http://office.microsoft.com/de-de) I am > quoted 139,00 €. That is $188.04 today. > > When I check the Australian website I am quoted $169.00 which is $174.42 USD. > > The Russian website quotes 3499.00 rubles, which is $116.30. > > So I'm seeing some higher and some lower. Does anyone see pricing > that is outside of the range USD 116.30 - 188.04 ? > > This complicates the analysis, but I don't think it changes the story much. > > -Rob > > > > >> We have averaged 153K downloads per day of Apace OpenOffice over the >> last week. That is an average value to the public of $21.5 million >> per day. Or $7.833 billion (7.833 thousand million) per year. >> >> To put that in perspective, here are comparable annual sales figures >> for some familiar companies: >> >> -- Campbell Soup Company: $7.882 billion >> -- Royal Caribbean Cruises: $7.657 billion >> -- Mastercard, Inc: $7.391 billion >> -- OfficeMax: $7.094 billion >> >> >> So we're providing tremendous value to the public. We should be proud >> of what we've accomplished over the past decade. >> >> Note: We could certainly debate the exact value provided to users. >> Determining what a user would do if they did not get AOO for free is >> tricky. But the logic above is similar to how the BSA estimates >> losses to Microsoft from software piracy. They assume that the person >> who pirates Office would buy it if they did not pirate it. So it >> seems fair to use that same logic to estimate the value provided to >> users by a legal free alternative like Apache OpenOffice. >> >> Regards, >> >> -Rob
