Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!decwrl!granite.pa.dec.com!mwm From: mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (Real Amigas have keyboard garages) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community. Message-ID: Date: 29 May 90 18:45:35 GMT References: <1990May17.001308.29541@csmil.umich.edu> <136089@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <11747@cbmvax.commodore.com> <136118@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <1401@faatcrl.UUCP> <9132@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> <1407@ Sender: news@decwrl.dec.com Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 47 In-reply-to: jprad@faatcrl.UUCP's message of 27 May 90 18:24:05 GMT In article <1407@faatcrl.UUCP> jprad@faatcrl.UUCP (Jack Radigan) writes: The "work" required to create a product is several orders of magnitude greater than that needed to package and distribute it. The problem is that the "cut" is far too large in proportion to their effort. Assumptions are a dangerous thing. Yup. So I'm not going to assume the first paragraph was spoken out of ignorance, but that you've actually turned out a commercial product, including beta testing, packaging, documentation, distribution and support. The question is - what was the product? I can't imagine anything where the effort to turn it from "good enough to let other people use" to "good enough to charge people money for up front" is more than marginally less than that needed to create it. For most, you've done maybe 10% of the work when you start beta testing. Chuck's description is far to accurate - except he forgot that as soon as you start shipping, you'll start getting calls from people who had bad disks, or never got the product, or otherwise require you to send them another copy of the program. The cost for that comes (naturally enough) out of your pocket. From my investigations of the mail-order market (15 years ago now), selling something that had no upgrade or support requirements (basically, a game), doing everything out of your house, you needed a markup of x6 over materials cost _just to break even_. I'm not at all surprised that games retail for $25-$50. That also means that non-trivial programs - like a compiler with multiple disks and a multi-volume manual in 3-ring binders - you need to charge $60-$100 for a complete ugprade just to break even, not counting the extra support costs for the new version. Anybody who goes through the problems of trying to turn a "program" into a "product" deserves to earn lots of money - if the program is well enough done and unique enough to earn it. Even if I don't think it is, I'm not going to begrude them their houses in LA (or SF) and their Mercedes. Remember, for everyone who makes it, there are 10 or more who dropped out of the Amiga market and are still trying to pay back their Visa bills.