Hi Ivan, Oh if only it were true... However, software like Altium Designer keeps growing to incorporate user requests. Also growing by leaps and bounds is the cost of living in general. People work at Altium, and they expect to get paid for their efforts so they can maintain a decent standard of living.
Hardware gets easier to make with quantity and technology. Scale of production can reduce costs as automation makes assembly easier and faster. However, once the radio is built it doesn't get quarterly updates to fix the static or loose knobs. If it works well, it may get a new cabinet for the next model year, but the guts are still basically the same year-after-year. Software expectations and maintenance are nothing like a consumer electronic product. For example, the first version of Protel came on one 1.44mb floppy disk, and the next version took two floppies - both ran only on DOS. Version 3 came on 5 five floppies, and it ran under Windows. Protel98 and subsequent versions came on compact disks because of the size of the compressed installation files. Altium Designer comes on two compact disks, and requires several gigabytes of disk space to install the more than 21 thousand component files from which it is comprised. Every version has gotten larger and more complex, and each version has kept pace with the improvements in the underlying operating system. No two major versions of Protel were ever just a change of packaging, or minor upgrades of existing code. A journey back through the archives and the Protel/Altium knowledge base will reveal a constant flow of feature requests from users. Most of those features and capabilities have been incorporated, which accounts for the growth in size and complexity. What once required just one clever engineer (Nick Martin), now requires a staff of specialists - each with a concise piece of the software to maintain and improve. At least four other companies have been purchased and absorbed into Protel to create Altium. Those acquisitions were driven by the need and desire to grow the product to meet consumer demand for more and more capability. Protel/Altium went public to raise money to expand from a one man company to a corporation capable of producing larger, more capable, products. This is called planning for business success. Where in that history and business model would a product price reduction be reasonable? Look at inflation in general - everything from bottled water to gasoline has nearly doubled in price over the past 15 years. Salaries have increased to accommodate the increased cost of living. Government regulations and taxes also have increased the cost of running a physical plant from which to do business. Have you decreased your prices as your speed and knowledge have increased with experience, and you customer base expanded? Have your mortgage or rent, insurance, utilities decreased in cost? I know you run your own business Ivan - are you making more or less profit at the end of the year than you did a decade ago. If the answer is more, did you have to increase prices to make it happen? ---- Economics 101 ---- Nothing happens in isolation in the business world. Increasing the cost of gasoline because of storm damage to the refinery causes the truck driver to want a higher wage to pay his gasoline bill. Increasing the truck driver's wages increases the cost of a head of lettuce at the market because of the increased cost of delivery. The increased cost of lettuce causes the people buying the lettuce to want more from their employers to help pay the higher grocery bill. The increased worker wages for the lettuce eaters at the widget factory cause the owner to raise his prices so he can still pay his overhead costs. The increased widget costs cause the truck driver (who also is a widget user) to demand higher pay at the next union negotiation. Etc, etc... Regards - Harry At 09:02 AM 3/21/06, you wrote: >Brad Velander wrote: > > Sure their software is worth more than it used to be but not more than > > doubling the price in the past 4 - 5 years. > >True, in fact, I'd say that in some ways there is justification for pricing >it less. Hardware is subject to incremental improvement in functionality >and decreases in price over time. Every other technology good follows this >pricing trend - why doesn't software? It's not as if each new release must >be a complete rewrite from scratch - much existing code is modified and >augmented. What is the justification for perpetually increasing the price >of software? Could it just be greed? > >Best regards, >Ivan Baggett >Bagotronix Inc. >website: www.bagotronix.com > > >Brad Velander wrote: > > Harry, Mike, > > This whole thing is getting blown out of proportion. I posted the > details that I did because there were different stories being debated > when it came to what Altium was supposedly quoting various users with > regards to the upgrade. When I received my solicitation I could see > between the lines of what others were saying. So I posted it to aid in > understanding the current pricing situation and sorting some of the > various comments that were coming out. > > > > I do seriously think that Altium is acting maliciously and > without regard towards their customers. Sure their software is worth more > than it used to be but not more than doubling the price in the past 4 - 5 > years. Not when you only look at the core features of Sch & PCB design. > For those two tools they are quite quickly pricing themselves out of the > market. > > > > Sincerely, > > Brad Velander > > Senior PCB Designer > > Northern Airborne Technology > > #14 - 1925 Kirschner Road, > > Kelowna, BC, V1Y 4N7. > > tel (250) 763-2329 ext. 225 > > fax (250) 762-3374 > > >____________________________________________________________ >You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > >To Post messages: >mailto:[email protected] > >Unsubscribe and Other Options: >http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > >Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > >Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
