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[rant] Seriously? Software pricing is officially nuts

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Innuendo:
Lots of good points in this thread, but I feel obligated to point out that ACDSee Pro referenced in the OP is ACD System's direct competitor to Adobe's Lightroom & aimed at professional photographers. ACD Systems has a product aimed at 'the rest of us' (ACDSee) that's considerably cheaper. I'm not going to comment on usability or bugs of these programs as this is not what this thread is about, but the pricing for ACDSee Pro is in line with its competitors geared towards a user base who use these programs to make their living.

On the subject of lifetime licenses I have been very blessed. I have bought AnyDVD and later upgraded to HD (I agree with Josh on his sentiments about HD being a violation of the spirit of the license), Newsbin Pro, Ad Muncher, Alcohol 120%, PowerArchiver and ReGet Deluxe. I have also recently won a lifetime license to Total Commander here on DC. My only disappointment regarding any of these programs is that ReGet's development seems to have stalled, but they have gone long periods without releasing versions before.

The Newsbin & Total Commander authors are staunch supporters of the lifetime license philosophy. I believe they would have to experience something very serious to change their opinions. Both products have been around for years and years and years. Sure, something may change in regards to the licensing of any of these programs, but over the years I've gotten more than my money's worth out of any of them so my grapes wouldn't be too sour.

Lifetime licenses or not, pricing is a tricky thing. In my mind, I am going to be more likely to pay more for a program that I use every day as opposed to one I may use 3 times a year. I am also more apt to purchase a program that will enhance my ability to earn money.

For all others, I'm proud to be a member of Donation Coder where Mouser regularly corners software authors in dark alleyways and shakes them down to get us the awesome discounts on software that makes a lot of those software prices seem more palatable.

edbro:
Nothing can top Quicken. They change the file format for online banking downloads every few years, forcing you to upgrade so as not to lose functionality.

40hz:
Amen. Many users complain when a company switches from originally providing a product as a lifetime license, back when it wasn't very well known, and switch after it takes off and they have to provide more support than was intended. I truly hate when people complain about that. I also dislike lifetime licenses, in practice, as they rarely pan out and the user who bought one thing gets screwed because the company renames a product and sells it as new. Please note: Cases like AnyDVD HD I do NOT CONSIDER a violation to this because the HD addon was in fact an upgrade to the original DVD/CD ONLY product.
-Josh (November 18, 2009, 01:19 PM)
--- End quote ---

I was just thinking, they might be a lot smarter if they called what they were offering something like a charter user or early adopter special license offer. This makes it very clear that the what's being offered is a limited-time reward for being an early purchaser of the product.

When you say "lifetime", most people think "for as long as I want to use it." So rather than get into philosophical hair-splitting or legal chicanery, why not just call it what is really is and be done with it?

If I were making such an offer, I'd probably word it something like this:

As you may know, it's extremely difficult to get people to purchase a brand new software product.

In many ways it's similar what first time political candidates face trying to get people to vote for them. So we're borrowing a page from old-school politics by offering you a bribe to elect our candidate.

Here's the deal:

If you purchase a licensed copy of our super-duper deluxe product from us right now, we will allow you to download and use all future editions of this product at no additional charge. This offer will remain in effect for as long as we continue to release this product.

This is our way of rewarding you for taking a chance on us when we (quite frankly) need all the paying customers we can get.

Please note: this is a special offer . It may be withdrawn at any time. And once it is, it will never be offered again.

So if you're interested, now is the time to collect your bribe while it is still available.
--- End quote ---

I think something like that would go a long way towards managing customer expectations and avoid any confusion over exactly what is being offered. ;D 8)

40hz:
but the pricing for ACDSee Pro is in line with its competitors geared towards a user base who use these programs to make their living.
-Innuendo (November 18, 2009, 02:24 PM)
--- End quote ---

That may very well be true. But since I'm not a professional photographer, I'm in no position to determine just how accurate that claim is.

And the justification "this is what we charge because that's what everyone else is charging for similiar products" doesn't do much more than beg the argument for a price tag  being what it is.

But even if I'm not a pro photographer, I'm still a fairly clever person who could benefit from an explanation of how a product like this is different enough to spend this kind of money on.

Somebody like me would be very  interested in understanding just what that something is that separates the "pro" from the "consumer" version. In short, what is the unique sales proposition that differentiates it from lesser or competing products.

Not saying it isn't. I'm just saying I don't get it.

But I guess if I were a photographer, I wouldn't be asking to begin with. ;D

f0dder:
That's why I never upgraded to ACDSee Pro version 2 - and I certainly won't be going to 3.

I know a lot of people like ACDSee and I used it for a long time but every version they produce has loads of bugs in it and most of these 'upgrades' seem to me to be most bug fixes and new bugs. Call me cynical if you like ....
-Carol Haynes (November 18, 2009, 10:45 AM)
--- End quote ---
That last decent version of ACDSee was... let me see if I recall correctly... version 2.44 or something, I believe. Back then they had a LEAN_AND_MEAN (and pretty darn fast, app-load as well as pic-load) application that did what it was supposed to, and did it well. Then they started adding features that didn't belong in that application. Same story as with NERO Burning ROM.

As for licenses... I think developers should stop offering lifetime licenses. It means they'll eventually lack a revenue stream, and will have to do überleim things like saying "Oh, MyApp no longer exists, but you can buy (a lifetime license for) the new and improve MyApp Pro! - bad bad.

Stick with your core features, make new apps when new features don't fit with your existing apps, stick with a sane licensing scheme (major-version works well in my mind - as long as there's (at least relatively) major new features, and not just arbitrary version bumps).

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