----- Original Message ----- From: "Philip S Tellis" philip.tellis@iname.com Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Promoting Linux
On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, aaaaarrrgghhh wrote:
Once this is understood, it becomes clear that the software itself
should
not be priced highly, but after sales service and support should be charged for.
Why? It took me so much time/energy/brains to make the product..why shouldnt i charge for it? And what is 'high price"? its relative to
because you did not spend time/energy/brains to make the product.
I think ur restricting this discussion to use of open source/free software, while i took your earlier mail to be a commentary on the software industry as a whole.
- Most general purpose software already exists
- You did not spend your brains trying to develop whatever it is you
developed, because the concepts required to develop it are already well known. If they aren't well known, then you're in the wrong job. You should be a pioneer, not a software seller.
If you make specialised software, then yes, you must charge for it, and charge anything you want for it. The simple fact is, you divide the development costs by the number of users. A word processor is used by everyone, so the development cost per user is very small. A specialised environmental controller for a greenhouse is used by maybe one person, you charge him a lot.
If i'm a company like Infosys/SAP, then I'm designing software to make companies more productive.. Every project requires analysis...design...i'm definitely using my knowledge/brains/experience! Even if i provide a simple web interface for configuring an application - i'm using some skill and time.. As for your argument abt 'the concepts being known' ..it doesnt hold water becoz i'm not charging anyone for the concept.....i'm charging them for the tangible benefit they will get from using my product, which is really my cost of implementing that concept. And who said that a pioneer cant be a seller? Most companies start from an idea! as for the economics, its not as simple as division by no. of users..but i'll skip that for now.. ;-)
regards, kishor