terrell@druhi.ATT.COM (TerrellE) (06/22/89)
# From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs) # # Your suggestions are interesting, but they neglect the dirty little secret # of all marketed products: when you sell something, you make just as much # money from purchasers who don't like it as from those who do. A lot of # businesses with thin per-unit margins survive by virtue of customers who # would readily agree that they got what was advertised, it just didn't turn # out to make them as happy as they had hoped. Another subtle flaw is that # in a small shop, support and updates draw on the same very limited human # resource. Interesting point. Of the software I've purchased for my ST, I would not have purchased about 25% of it if I had "test driven" it for a week. Consider a more extreme case: how much software is "disposable" - for example, do users ever run an adventure game after solving it? What about educational software - do you ever run the program after you've been through all the lessons? Would you ever purchase an upgrade (not a sequel) to a game? What about an educational program? Perhaps software rental (ugh) is the appropriate distribution medium for these kind of applications... If so, how can this be done right? Terrell