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From: rhys@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (Rhys Weatherley)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: v08i116: ozshare1, shareware utils (part 01/10)
Keywords: Shareware
Message-ID: <5253@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
Date: 16 Oct 90 08:33:40 GMT
References: <2071@sixhub.UUCP> <4615@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
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Reply-To: rhys@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au
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rusbara2@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Bob Rusbasan) writes:

>[...]
>Shareware, $20.  |  The price?  $250!!!!  How's that for the "shareware
>Shareware $20.   |  advantage?  Oh, and by the way, I didn't include the
>[...]

I haven't downloaded these utils, but I bet that the $20 price on most
of these is AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS.  At the current exchange rate of "around"
80 US cents per Aussie dollar, this is $16 US.  A little better Bob?

Also, the software industry in Australia is not as good as elsewhere.
In fact in general our whole computer industry is not good, with the
market driven by overseas companies, and the Australian operations don't
get as much coverage, in terms of "Well Known Companies", and a couple
of years ago more computer companies were going broke than starting up.  
There is a "partner" scheme going at the moment, but even for Shareware 
it can be difficult to make a quid.

Also, I've found that many users in Australia don't make donations for 
Shareware because of the problems of sending money overseas, so an 
Australian author needs to put his price up a bit more to make it worth 
his while.

>The author seemed to not be fond of the idea of packaging these together.
>Maybe this is why.  Does he really expect people to pay these prices?

As I said, it's a bit difficult, and the prices you are quoting for
"purchasing" everything are actually quite reasonable by Australian
standards.  Consider this: the price I paid for the Turbo C++ Pro Pack,
was $395 Australian dollars!  And anyway, you probably don't want ALL
of the utilities - just pay for those you want :-).

I'm certainly NOT saying that Australian computer products are inferior.
In many cases it's superior to the overseas' equivalents.  It's just a 
little harder surviving, that's all.

Rhys.

+===============================+==============================+
||  Rhys Weatherley             |  University of Queensland,  ||
||  rhys@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au  |  Australia.  G'day!!        ||
+===============================+==============================+