bparsia@eagle.wesleyan.edu (03/20/90)
In article <2277@husc6.harvard.edu>, siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) writes: [In response to an earlier post of mine where I whined about the upgrade cost of THINK Pascal] > By way of justification: > > Lightspeed Pascal came out in 1986. That was four years ago. Since > then, four years worth of research and development have gone into making > successively better versions of THINK Pascal, in response to our customers' > requests and with some new features dreamed up by our engineers, of which > I am one. > > THINK Pascal 2.0 included completely rewritten documentation, in > a new manual format. This required a year of concentrated effort by our > documentation group. THINK Pascal 2.0 also included many new features and > improvements on old features. > > THINK Pascal 3.0 included support for MacApp, a class library of > its own, THREE brand-new manuals, and TWO new disks. > > These upgrades cost money to produce. There are the salaries of the > development team, the cost of materials, and the cost of production. > The shelf packages also cost money to produce and distribute. The increase > in list price is a reflection of all these factors, and also a reflection > of our positioning of THINK Pascal as a development environment of professional > capability, but one which is still suited to novice work. > > Furthermore, the cost of the package (and upgrades) includes things > like the cost (to us) of our free telephone tech support. And I think you people have done a great job and deserve some dough. BUT, first of all, what I was complaining about was the reposistioning of ThP as a professional product which COSTS too much for novice work. Keep the price of the "full" ThP at whatever, but how about a low end (ThP "Write") upgradeable and compatible with the high end (ThP "Word")? I don't think you are overcharging for what you offer, I just think that you might be offering a little bit too much. This makes it difficult for those of us who want "a little bit more" (i.e. the new resource utilities--has anyone caught on to this whining or am I blowing stale air?) but not everything (i.e. TCL) AT THE MOMENT. ThP is not a low end product or even an nice mid-end, playing both roles product. This saddens me. > > Consider, by way of contrast, the cost of a roughly comparable package: > MPW, from APDA; the "MPW Pascal Bundle" costs $400. Subtract $100 for the > Assember (which THINK Pascal doesn't supply), but add $100 for MacApp. > The total cost is still $400. I would also add in the cost of the necessary hardware which makes it mega-expensive. This is considerably more than $249 for > THINK Pascal, I agree, you are much, MUCH more economical than MPW. However, that does not make you economical. and it's not discounted anywhere, whereas you can get > THINK Pascal 3.0 on the street for somewhere in the vicinity of $100. If I could get THINK Pascal for $100 right now (and let us say I had had to pay the $49 dollar upgrade cost to 2.0, which I almost did) I would have ended up paying a whole lot more for THINK Pascal than this. Granted phone support, etc. etc. I don't use phone support (yet), though I do want it around. > Also, it costs $195 to upgrade your MPW Pascal package. This is also > considerably more than the $69 we're asking. > > The point I'm trying to make is that while you may think that $69 > is an expensive upgrade, it's not. Since you (by your own statement) > paid $65 for the original package, the total cost of a THINK Pascal 3.0 > is $134, which is comparable to the street price. I'm not unsympathetic > to your position, because I was once a broke college student, and even > now I don't exactly have dollar bills stuffing my mattress. However, it's > in the bst insterest of the company, and its customers, to at least break > even on the products they sell. Yes, yes, yes. Did *anyone* read my posting all the way through :-) (no one quoted anything beyond the second paragraph). My problem is, I want a little more functionality, and I'm willing to pay for it, but I don't want the $69 worth of improvement (again, yet). > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Rich Siegel > Staff Software Developer > Symantec Corporation, Language Products Group > Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu > UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel > > "When someone who makes four hundred and fifty dollars an hour wants to > tell you something for free, it's a good idea to listen." > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for responding, but please note: I think you charge a fair price. The "that seems steep" simply means that maybe you are adding TOO much functionality at times and that it would be nice to have a low-end path as well (maybe an improved, compiling MacPascal). That's all. Hey, I appriciate you people! If I were up to OOP, I'd be thrilled at your price. I just like to muck around, at the moment, so am just looking for the minimal necessary to do so. I'll keep using ThP 2.0 with pleasure, but I will also lust after certian parts of the 3.0 release (though not all of it). This, of course, coming from a dedicated FullWrite user. Bijan J. Parsia