On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 12:32 AM, Jay R. Ashworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 06:43:51PM -0400, Steve Totaro wrote: >> Maybe next they will charge $250 for "conference bridge" capabilities. >> It's a joke to cripple things that can be enabled by flicking a >> switch. Your system comes with eight ports of VM but for another $250 >> we can give you 12...... > > "Feature pricing" (also called "value pricing") is a time honored > tradition -- especially in the telecom business. > > Ever wonder why your telco charged you $2.50 a month for call waiting > when it involved exactly, let me see, right: *no hardware at all*? > > Because they could. > > And more to the point: because Nortel charged *them* $20k a year[1] to > enable the feature in the generic, and they were damn sure gonna get > that money back from someone. > > In this case, *they give away the entire source package. For free*. > > I like you a lot, Steve, generally, but it feels a bit like you're > whining, on this one, to me... > > Cheers, > -- jra > [1] These features were indeed charged for, though usually in packages; > I don't have exact numbers -- though I *do* have a DMS 100 Feature > Portfolio on my bookshelf, so I could give you a feature number, if you > like. > -- > Jay R. Ashworth Baylink [EMAIL > PROTECTED] > Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 > Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com '87 e24 > St Petersburg FL USA http://photo.imageinc.us +1 727 647 1274 > > Those who cast the vote decide nothing. > Those who count the vote decide everything. > -- (Joseph Stalin) >
Let me clarify this a bit with some ramblings if anyone cares to read, if not move along. Yes, I was whining a bit. I always recommend what I think fits best for a customer. I am not in the "Digium Foodchain" because of the first statement. I swear allegiance to nobody except my customers, who are trusting me to ask the right questions, feel them out, be a mind reader to a degree, and deliver the best customized solution for them that I can. I have purchased and installed SwitchVoxen a couple of times, more than a year before they were acquired by Digium. I am not positive, but I am pretty sure the pricing model was much different. Anyways, if you google my name and SwitchVox you will see that I have always (time and time again) said it was a great product, and it is. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=7jw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=steve+totaro+switchvox&spell=1 I guess I hate to see something I have viewed as such a huge paradigm shift and disruptive force from selling boxes to selling knowledge. I hate to see things going back to the status quo of the old world (such as feature pricing). BUT, as stated, I am not forced to use SwitchVox or any commercial product for that matter and Digium has to make money too so I was off base on that. While SwitchVox is Asterisk, Asterisk is not Switchvox. AsteriskNow is Asterisk but not now..... I do however, think that Digium should provide some rough concurrent call figures and I guess that is how I got off topic on this SwitchVox tangent. There are some common feature sets, especially when looking at PBX functionality with or without Zap or transcoding hardware that could be published (with a disclaimer of course). There are also common server platforms but that is more of a moving target. Maybe if Sangoma publishes some along those lines, then Digium will follow suit. Maybe just side by side benchmarking would be sufficient to both give an idea on scaling and also compare like hardware from different vendors. I would probably even throw FreeSwitch into mix. Word has it that FS can scale up much larger for setting up and tearing down calls. I am an FS newb as of now so it is hearsay. I like Digium and how they are "Boldly Going Where no Man has Gone Before (before the politically correct version :-) It must be hard coming up with a new business model and while they do things such as EOLing 1.2 and putting out untested, broken 1.4 code (I could go on but I am don't want to come across as bashing Digium). I want to be supportive and thankful, so thanks Digium (and everyone else in the community). Thanks, Steve Totaro _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
