On Feb 16, 2006, at 8:35 AM, Mel Patrick wrote:
I haven't found any relationship between the price and crap program/
terrible support categories. I have purchased $80 programs that
turn out to be crap but have great support, $300 programs that are
great but riddled with bugs/support issues and $7 programs that are
just fantastic in both aspects. And everything in between.
What I have noticed is that if the author tends to actually "use"
the software being sold, rather than just writing it to fill a void
and make an income, the software tends to be of better quality with
less bugs. The author seems far more receptive to fixing any
problems reported not only because they use it as well, but because
they are using it, they normally find the problems first.
Regardless of price, I try the software if I can, determine if it
will do the job I need and then see if there is alternative
programs that offer more or less of what I need. If the software is
the only game in town, then I can either afford it or I can't. If
there are a number of products that do similar things, then price
is going to come into play somewhere along the line.
I price my apps to what I think they are worth and what I think the
market could handle.
While I should take the time to develop into account, I feel that it
does not necessarily reflect the value of the software. For example,
I was talking to a software engineer that I used to work with and he
said that he wrote a small plugin that only took him a month to
develop... however that plugin was so popular and such a novel idea
at the time that it allowed him to cover his house payments for
several years before the concept was integrated into the main
program. I am not sure about the exact figures, but he was
approximately making $1000+ per hour for his development time on that
project.
Why? He had a great idea and implemented it. Other ideas are not as
successful and might net only approximately $10 or even $1 per hour.
Right now I am pricing my apps at $15 per license because that is
what I think they are worth. They have not (yet) made up my
development costs, but I consider much of the development time to be
educational. I consider my apps "successful" because a) I like them,
b) the customers like them, c) the experience allows me to make
better applications, d) I improve my development-to-market cycle, e)
each app expands my common code allowing quicker development, and f)
each app provides a marketing support and structure which means that
I get "free" advertising when an existing/potential customer becomes
interested in another product.
That said, I am working toward developing a couple products which I
believe to be in the $30 range (we will see)... at the same time I am
looking to developing kids educational software (logic games) which I
believe will be in the $5 range.
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