You have forgotten what EDA software used to cost! In the early days of Daisy, Mentor, Valid you would have to pay ten's of thousands of dollars just for schematic capture! The PCB layout tools cost $100k+. This was before PC's came along.
In the IC industry, they have to pay $100k-1m+ for a single software seat! I think PCB is doing pretty well compared to that. If you look at Altium's financials, they are not outrageous. And they are helping many more people to pay their mortgage bills than I suspect your company does. Your other examples have a major difference - they are all very high volume products and services. There are probably around 200-300k hardware engineers in the world, yet there are millions of consumers for the examples you give. (and all of those associated companies pay just as fat salaries and even more for marketing/advertizing). Economies of scale permit them to reduce prices combined with market forces (competition). Software prices will only go up if the market will bear it - supply & demand, economics 101. Sorry - but your arguments seem hypocritical to me. You pretty much hinted, that if you could charge more you would (but alas "market forces" don't permit). --- Bagotronix Tech Support <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > No, not everything has gone up. I am surprised that > you would make this > claim, being in the electronics industry. Here are > some things that have > gone down: > > Long distance rates > Cellphone rates > TVs (get a good one for $300 US, they used to be a > lot more) > All kinds of personal electronics > Computers > > I have somewhat increased what I charge for > consulting services over the > years. But I am not able to increase what I charge > for hardware due to > market forces. > > Other than hiring more programmers or giving them a > raise, I see no excuse > for software prices going up. Code can be (and is) > re-used from one version > to the next, so that R&D is already paid for. What > the increases are really > for is to support the increased inefficiency of the > corporate machine. Yes, > you are less efficient (in terms of work output / > dollars input) if you get > paid more for doing the same thing. So, I have > become slightly less > efficient in the past 10 years ;-) But not to the > extent that Big Corp. > does. They have big CEOs, big marketing depts, big > stockholders to pay big > bucks to. But the output isn't scaling with the $$$ > input. So they are > becoming less efficient. > > Increasing software prices vs. decreasing customer > acceptance of paying > those prices. This is another classic case of the > irresistable force > meeting the immovable object. It will be > interesting to see what happens. > > Best regards, > Ivan Baggett > Bagotronix Inc. > website: www.bagotronix.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tony Karavidas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Protel EDA Forum" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 3:33 PM > Subject: Re: [PEDA] Upgrade Pricing Ethics WAS: Not > DXP or P99SE, but have > you seen the Cadence offer!!!! > > > > Ivan, do you mean to say your prices haven't gone > up in the past (pick > time > > frame)?? > > I know I charge more today for basically the same > work that I did 3 or 4 > > years ago. Why is everyone so shocked that > Protel's price went up? > > Everything has gone up, milk, eggs, gas, cars, > etc. > > > > ************************************************************************ > * Tracking #: > DF1752DB3F408D41961F4515E9A83AB044E225E9 > * > ************************************************************************ > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > * * * * > * To post a message: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > * > * To leave this list visit: > * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html > * > * Contact the list manager: > * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > * > * Forum Guidelines Rules: > * > http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html > * > * Browse or Search previous postings: > * > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > * * * * __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ************************************************************************ * Tracking #: B9C6C8D282D60C4AA50F95563260E914DA61A1AD * ************************************************************************ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
