djm@nmtvax.UUCP (04/27/85)
The difference in the approaches of software selling, free (but pay if
you like it) versus give me all your money (whether you like it or not),
strikes me as being very similar to the difference between two (hopefully)
well-known economic theories.
The first is that of scarcity : nothing is easy to obtain, and there are
limited amounts of what can be gotten, therefore prices will have to rise
as time goes on.
The other is that of plenty : most things in the world are easily available,
and nothing basically needed is excluded (luxuries are another matter, but
the same idea applies).
Although the above statements are somewhat over-simplified (economics people,
please correct any gross mis-statement, but w/o flames, please), the similarity
is striking. E.g., shareware is saying 'here it is, use it. If you like it,
send me what you think it is worth'; normal marketing says 'software is an
incredible investment, it eats up time and hence money, et cetera'.
Responses? (flames to /dev/null || /dev/fire.hose).
Dieter Muller
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