At 8/29/01 12:53 AM Wednesday, you wrote:
> We hear you. However, the pricing structure is actually an improvement on
> the original pricing, which only gave you the options of the (free)
> Starter kit, or the Pro license at $995. I don't think $349 assumes that
> the buyer must be a corporation, it's a price that many shareware authors
> for example could easily justify in time and effort saved to make a
> product that sells.
Heather,
I also don't think that $349 assumes that you are a corporation. If you
read my original message, though, you will see that isn't my real concern.
The real concern is that $349 includes no updates and there seems to be no
way to get updates except to pay $349 repeatedly or upgrade to the Pro
License. In a development product that is continually adding new features,
it doesn't seem that no updates is an acceptable alternative for most people.
For "shareware" authors, there will be a perceived need to keep their
products up to date with current technology. The unfortunate fact is that
many shareware products are a labor of love rather than much of a business.
Expecting these people to continually shell out more money to keep their
products up to date isn't realistic.
So again, I would propose adding an intermediate step. Allow someone to
purchase the standard user license and immediately purchase a renewal
license for $299. Why should a user be penalized for a year before being
allowed to upgrade?
> Why is Revolution different? Without going into too many details,
> Revolution derives from the MetaCard pricing structure, which is really a
> subscription based model rather than a purchase and update model. The
> Standard User license is a concession to the perceived need for a lower
> entry price than $995.
I see from a later message that your contention is that by the end of a
year users will have purchased several standard licenses and should then be
eligible for a renewal license. I contend that most people who purchase a
standard license will not purchase additional standard licenses. If they
were going to do that, they would have likely just purchased a pro license
to begin with. Not to mention the fact that during the first year,
especially, there are likely to be more than 2 upgrades. This means that
the standard user would actually be paying more than a pro user unless you
automatically convert the subscription when the user meets the appropriate
price point. This pricing will effectively eliminate purchase by most
casual users who would like to play around with programming and create some
useful tools but can't see themselves spending $1000 to do so. This is
where a lot of the dedicated HyperCard users came from.
Again, I'm not arguing that you should use Apple's pricing model. Just use
one that is more accessible to non-corporate users as well as the license
with full docs for those who want to get the whole package.
-Rodney
