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I agree with the high price tag only affecting some
people. For those who have experienced software lifecycles and had a taste
of the budget it takes to pull those things off, Flex is affordable, and fits in
nicely to the workflow in a big company.
The other side is education; I had a long talk with
my managers yesterday about the possibility of using Flex. I had figured
we were too small of a company (about 14 people), and our clients couldn't
afford it. I was wrong. Some clients only care about speed to
delivery; Flex can do that, I know for a fact, I've been using it since I got my
license in all my free time. They have no problems paying fee's to get to
end results quicker, when those quicker results really don't cost them as much
to get there. Flash? Flex? They don't care, they want it
tomorrow. Flex is quicker.
I did communicate the only thing I don't like about
Flex, and that was no source code (at least, not complete). In Flash, if
something goes wrong, I can look at the code, find the problem, and either fix
it, or work around it. I don't mind being held accountable by my managers
for Flash, but I certainly didn't want to be held accountable for Flex.
They, however, were cool and said if I document what I did, and document what
Macromedia/Flexcoders says in response, then there is nothing I can do, and they
understand that.
----- Original Message -----
From: Vinny Timmermans
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 11:26 PM
Subject: [flexcoders] Flex Pricing: Relax! I have started many discussions on Flex pricing, and
contributed heavily to each and every other previous Flex pricing post, because
I was convinced that Flex pricing killed my and other Flex lovers'
opportunities. The reason why I did not contribute until so far is simple. I
have experienced that for hot opportunities Macromedia is willing to work out
the right deal for you and your customer. They don't kill your opportunities.
This is a proven fact. So if you think Flex may be the right solution for your
customer's business problem, don't let the pricetag intimidate you. Contact
Macromedia and work it out!
The real threat, however, comes from a different corner.
High price tags might frighten developers to seriously invest in Flex. Return on
investment may seem far lower than from investing in any other
platform. The number of experienced, professional Flex developers is low at
the moment and may not rise fast enough to realize all Flex opportunities that
pop-up in the market in the coming years. Therefore it is absolutely
necessary that Macromedia will provide a range of other Flex packages soon.
From low-cost (stripped down server-based versions) to no-cost (just mxml
compilation without server-based features; the developer-centered Flash
alternative). The critical success factor in the next period is not
the Flex price tag, but the number of experienced, highly qualified developers
out there that master MXML and AS2 and can rapidly create the killer
applications Flex can offer. Don't make it a second ColdFusion: powerful
platform, excellent programming language, not enough
developers.
Vinny
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