donna@micor.UUCP (Donna Hogan) (11/27/90)
>Designer and CorelDraw are too expensive for a user who needs to draw >pictures for papers (etc.), and who does not care about all those >presentation libraries. COREL has just increased its Canadian price >to almost $900.00, which is far above the value of the program and >the marketing policy of the company is a shame. > >DO NOT BUY COREL, they deserve to be punished. If you need a good >presentation program BUY MS pOWERpOINT, which is very good and priced >more reasonably (I have been using it on MAC for long time, and the >Window's version is even better). Agreed, Designer and Corel Draw are not appropriate for users who don't want to do much more than draw simple squares and circles. Their customer bases tend to be comprised of people who are trying to make money from their graphics work. That is, advertising agencies, sign companies, dtp shops, etc. Not really appropriate for students who just want to jazz up their english assignments. FLAME ON!!! Corel Systems doesn't, however, deserve to be punished. You do. It's always irksome when someone speaks from ignorance, pretending to be an authority on something, and in reality is giving bad and very much mis- informed advice to others. Especially on so public a system as the net. The price for Corel Draw has increased by about $100 Canadian to account for a release, 2.0, which has literally taken over 18 months to develop! I suppose it would be a perfect world if everyone would just give the fruits of their labour away free, but alas, if Corel Draw was given away free then only you would be happy. Because there would be no other upgrades in the future, there wouldn't be a company. But I guess that doesn't matter, just as long as you get a free ride. Get with it, people are in business, not in the business of running a charity. As an aside, it may interest you to know that when Corel Draw 2.0 was demonstrated at the Comdex show in Las Vegas, it blew everyone away!!! The reviews of the show only talked about Windows and Corel Draw, (seems that I might not be the only one to think that Corel Systems should be congratulated, not punished as you so foolishly pointed out, on a release that puts them head-and-shoulders above all other drawing packages - and that goes for the MAC world too). By the way, MS Powerpoint is not Corel Draw/Designer's competitor. They are not even in the same market niche. I can't believe you compared them together. PowerPoint is a presentation utility, and it is practically expected that you would import graphics from other packages, Corel Draw is a graphics package. To use PP as a graphics utility or to use CD as a pres- entation utility would be like using your shoe to hammer in a nail. It works but why bother? FLAME OFF
andrzej@bcars268.UUCP (Andrzej Bieszczad) (11/28/90)
In article <1990Nov27.023852.1735@micor.UUCP>, donna@micor.UUCP (Donna Hogan) writes: |> |> Corel Systems doesn't, however, deserve to be punished. You do. It's |> always irksome when someone speaks from ignorance, pretending to be an |> authority on something, and in reality is giving bad and very much mis- |> informed advice to others. Especially on so public a system as the net. I spoke for myself and nothing is forbidden on a public network. And as far as ignorance goes ... well, I am a computer professional, and not an artist. What I wrote is my perception of the product, and from the noise on the net made about XVT Draw, I suspect that many people feels the same way. |> The price for Corel Draw has increased by about $100 Canadian to account |> for a release, 2.0, which has literally taken over 18 months to develop! |> I suppose it would be a perfect world if everyone would just give the |> fruits of their labour away free, but alas, if Corel Draw was given away |> free then only you would be happy. Because there would be no other |> upgrades in the future, there wouldn't be a company. But I guess that |> doesn't matter, just as long as you get a free ride. Get with it, people |> are in business, not in the business of running a charity. It took Borland a lot of time to develop its packages, and they did very good business out of selling them reasonably. Of course their packages are without any value for artists, but if some are interested a little bit in programming, they still may buy and try. That is not the case with CorelDraw. Just in the case you do not know: "the margin of a profit might be lowered, if the volume of sales is increased". Besides, they increased the price by Can$300.00 (from Can$599.00 to Can$899.00), and not Can$100.00 as you misleadingly suggest. Nota bene, after TurboProlog was returned by Borland to its original developers, the last time I heard about it was when the price was changed from $200.00 to $500.00. |> As an aside, it may interest you to know that when Corel Draw 2.0 was |> demonstrated at the Comdex show in Las Vegas, it blew everyone away!!! I did not say it is bad. I just said that the price policy is wrong. They could sell their art libraries for big bucks, while maintaing a reasonable price for the program. And this is why I think they should be punished. They force a prospective buyer to pay for the complete package, even if they know that a big chunk of it will not be used. "You take the whole thing or ... bug off" should be their marketing banner. They do not care about thousands of people who would be glad to be able to afford the price, but instead they concentrated on big buck consumers. |> The reviews of the show only talked about Windows and Corel Draw, (seems |> that I might not be the only one to think that Corel Systems should be |> congratulated, not punished as you so foolishly pointed out, on a release |> that puts them head-and-shoulders above all other drawing packages - and |> that goes for the MAC world too). ... and Windows go for Can$100.00, CorelDraw for Can$900.00. |> By the way, MS Powerpoint is not Corel Draw/Designer's competitor. |> They are not even in the same market niche. I can't believe you compared |> them together. PowerPoint is a presentation utility, and it is practically |> expected that you would import graphics from other packages, Corel Draw is |> a graphics package. To use PP as a graphics utility or to use CD as a pres- |> entation utility would be like using your shoe to hammer in a nail. It works |> but why bother? For my needs they are equivalent. I said I am not an artist, but I need proper drawing program to better present my technical ideas. Besides, if the shoe is hard enough ... why not? |> FLAME OFF And I will not call you an ignorant only because your opinions differ from those of mine. You are simply an ARTIST. ======================================================================== Andrzej Bieszczad | Phone: (613) 763-2259 Bell-Northern Research, Ltd. | Fax: (613) 763-3283 Dept. 7G12, P.O. Box 3511, Station C, | USENET: uunet!bnrgate!eh!andrzej Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Y 4H7 | BitNet: andrzej@BNR.CA ========================================================================
mussar@bcars53.uucp (G. Mussar) (11/28/90)
In article <1990Nov27.184403.6173@bigsur.uucp> andrzej@bcars268.UUCP (Andrzej Bieszczad) writes: > >Besides, they increased the price by Can$300.00 (from Can$599.00 to >Can$899.00), and not Can$100.00 as you misleadingly suggest. > Gee, I paid $400 Cdn for Corel V1.2 and I paid $125 Cdn to upgrade to 2.0. I was told by Corel that the $125 was the exact price difference between the LIST price of V1.2 and the LIST price of V2.0. Anyone paying list price for most software has not done any shopping. (BTW, these prices were from institutions here in Ottawa). -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Mussar |Bitnet: mussar@bnr.ca | Phone: (613) 763-4937 BNR Ltd. | UUCP: ..uunet!bnrgate!bcars53!mussar | FAX: (613) 763-2626
medici@dorm.rutgers.edu (Mark Medici) (11/29/90)
My $0.02. I don't have any problem paying $100.00 for the upgrade to Corel Draw 2.0. Though I don't use the program regularly, when I do use it nothing else will do. The new features represent a substantial improvement to Corel Draw, and are worth the cost of the update. However, I do not agree that the new features warrant an increase in the retail price. While Corel does need to recoup its development costs, this will occur through upgrade fees and new purchases. The price increase sends a message that Corel is not confident it can continue its software division on its existing income. This causes me concern, especially since I believe the higher price will result in less units sold. Competing packages will add features to diminish Draw! 2.x's advantage. If the competition maintains their current price, as I expect they would, new users will likely choose the lower cost package. I would certainly have trouble recommending Draw! to new users at its current price. If this precedent of escalating retail prices turns into continuing policy, I believe Corel will price itself out of the Personal Computer market altogether. The above personal views do not necessarily reflect those of my employers. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Medici/SysProg3 * Rutgers University/CCIS * medici@elbereth.rutgers.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------