Hello Uffe, and Everyone,
On Thu, Jan 30, 2003, at 12:16 AM, you wrote:
>
>
> In a message of 30-Jan-03 Matt Sealey wrote:
>
> > I'm just a little amazed that IBrowse 68k costs $59,
> > whereas a full version of Opera (for any damned OS you
> > like, including 6 months of free webmail) costs only $39.
>
> Opera has most probably a larger userbase which from an
> economical view justifies a lower price.
>
> > Which just happens to still be slightly more expensive
> > than Voyager, which just also happens to be available for
> > MorphOS too :)
>
--- big snip ----
>
> Uffe Holst
>
If we are going to talk about various browsers,
and their prices, let us take a little harder look
at their markets. Markets, here, mean both userbase
(actual and potential), and competition. Also, let
us take a look at the products, themselves. Then we
can truly say whether a browser is priced right or
not.
One, SFAIK, all graphical browsers, for the Inter-
net, are based on Mosaic/Mozilla. except for Opera.
This includes MS IE, NS Nav/Commun, AWeb, V, IB.
Because of the basis of Opera, it, theoretically,
should be less susceptible to all the sorts of at-
tacks employed against MS Windows, and unary systems
(Linux, UNIX, etc.). But, even with this "advan-
tage," Opera has to compete with the likes of MS IE,
which, if you buy MS Windows, it is freely given
(as a "present"), and the large userbase of Netscape.
Here, alone, to have a chance at surviving, and
prospering, Opera must be offered at a price low
enough for someone to consider buying it -- after
all, it is shareware.
Two, in the Amiga marketplace, which never was
that large, the various producers of browsers needed
to be able to capture as much of a share as possible
and still make a profit (Nothing wrong with that.).
As long as they were not greedy, they kept their
price low.
Three, when considering a price for an Amiga
product, keep in mind that, as long as you cannot go
out and buy the same product made for other systems,
to use with the Amiga, you have a captured audience,
and are limited to only those who make products for
the Amiga market. At one time, this was not true.
When WordPerfect Corporation made its product for
the Amiga, it priced it at a reasonable level (far
below what it charged in the MS world), and was
competing against such Amiga products as KindWords,
Excellence, etc. The main thing, it had going, for
it, was that, it made it easy to pass docs back and
forth, between the various versions of WP in the
various systems WP was used. This never happened
with graphical browsers for the Amiga -- no Amiga
browser was ported to the MS Windows or unary world,
nor was a browser, from the MS Windows or unary
world, ported to the Amiga.
Concluding, that, regardless of what IB, V, or
AWeb charged, and considering what they could have
charged (if they wished to take unfair advantage), I
think their prices have been quite reasonable, at
least, the is MHO. But, I respect anyone who does
think that the price of IB is out of line.
Hope I have not made things any murkier. Also,
hope this ends the OT discussion (I do not want it
to get out of hand.).
Regards,
Julian.
--------------------------------------------------------
Author of "MSH Tutorial V. 3.0".
Found on Aminet -- MSHTut30.lha
Julian Aronowitz. Tel.: (718) 654-1681;
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
