Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!sl From: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Re: 1-2 vs unlimited licenses (Unix for a 386) Message-ID: <243@van-bc.UUCP> Date: 2 Sep 89 09:29:17 GMT References: <1989Aug16.020438.5662@esegue.uucp> <7186@megatest.UUCP> <1792@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <16031@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <32254@ism780c.isc.com> <828@cirrusl.UUCP> Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) Organization: Wimsey Associates Lines: 42 In article <828@cirrusl.UUCP> dhesi@cirrusl.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes: >Let's assume that the company porting UNIX pays AT&T a royalty of $50 >for a 1-2 user license and $150 for an unlimited user license. > >If the 1-2 user system can be profitably sold for $x, then the >unlimited user system can be profitably sold for $x+100. Not necessarily. Part of what you are paying for is support and the amount of support is proportional to the number of users on a system. It is much more complicated to setup a Unix system to run well and be secure for say four to eight users than it is for your own personal workstation. This will generate more support calls for setup during that initial "free" support period. Also almost everyone I know realizes that every level of the distribution chain adds on it's own percentage. Personally I dislike multi-level distribution channels and *much* prefer to deal directly with the product manufacturer. In this day of instant communications this is becoming much easier and effective as well. An excellent example of how well this can work is Cincinatti Microwave. They manufacture and sell what are (arguably) the best radar detectors available. But you can't buy them at your local car shop. You pick up your phone, visa card in hand and phone their 800 number. Within a day or so it arrives UPS Blue. CM sells their products at prices slightly less than the other (not quite) equivalent products that are available from your local automotive shop. But in their case they get 100% of the price (less sales support costs) compared to their competitors getting probably around 30% of the selling price. While it may be arguable about whether or not they have the best products it is not arguable about who is biggest. The problem for company like SCO or ISC is that if they start giving discounts to people who deal directly with them their distributor channels start to get very upset. And up till now their distributor channels have been very effective at producing sales. So they tend to try and push customers to the distributors and resellers. -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)