Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!faatcrl!jprad
From: jprad@faatcrl.UUCP (Jack Radigan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Does Shareware hurt professional software development?
Message-ID: <1410@faatcrl.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 90 19:58:30 GMT
References: <1990May25.033040.12421@ameristar> <25291@netnews.upenn.edu> <1990May26.223843.19350@ameristar> <24937@usc.edu>
Organization: FAA Technical Center, Atlantic City NJ
Lines: 49

papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:

>Similarly have shareware and freeware sales of Amiga comm programs impacted
>A-Talk III sales? They have somewhat, but we've been hard at work at always
>being one step ahead (first with a tek emulator, first with Zmodem support,
>first with multi-serial, etc..). That is, users have benefitted from the
>competition between commercial and freeware/shareware, since we have had to
>continuously update the program with new features.  I doubt I would have
>continued to do that if the rest of the software competition was lousy.

Well, that is the bottom line, the competition has kept you "honest" in
that it motivates you to remain active in the development of future
releases.  Personally, I do admire the fact that you don't appear to be bitter
about the competition from me or any other Shareware author.  The commercial
market was too crowded to begin with, nor do I have the resources to commit
to it and make it a serious contender in that market.

>In terms of sales though, freeware/shareware has not really impacted us
>as much as low-priced commercial software such as Baud Bandit. And it
>doesn't matter that Baud Bandit has a horrid manual. It is still
>commercial software that is on dealer's shelves, unlike freeware/shareware.

The pricing of BaudBandit did seem a bit of a low-ball for commercial telecom
software.  IMHO, it is just commercially distributed Shareware, it's lack of
emulations are of no threat to Atalk-III, at least to those who would consider
Atalk-III in the first place, true?

>We found from interwiews that most people that use freeware/shareware wouldn't
>have considered buying a commercial product anyway. On the other hand, there 
>are a lot of people that wouldn't consider using software that doesn't come in
>a package with a manual and a "promise" of support.

I agree.  And that is why I elected to go the Shareware route, because some
people won't consider commerical prices.

>One thing that I'd like to tell people is that they should forget shareware
>if their purpose is making ANY money. Shareware doesn't pay and this is even 
>more true for a small market like the Amiga.  The only two Shareware flukes
>(PC-File and PC-WRITE) have been in the PC Market in the mid-eighties and
>they've never been emulated since.  People just don't want to pay for 
>things they know they can "keep" for free.

Well, I don't agree here.  Although I don't intend to get rich, I'm not about
to lose money either.  If the revenue can pay for my investment and future
equipment, as well as some pocket change I'll be happy.  but, more importantly,
I hope the quality of work that I have produced will enable me to do this on
a full-time basis in the future.  

  -jack-