Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!dptg!ulysses!andante!mit-eddie!mintaka!think.com!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!doorknob!rsw From: rsw@cs.brown.EDU (Bob Weiner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Shareware: think of it as wasting your time Message-ID: Date: 17 Nov 90 00:13:27 GMT References: <1009@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <1990Nov9.210806.11591@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <1010@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <1990Nov16.162407.13925@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Sender: news@brunix.UUCP Organization: Brown U. Lines: 71 In-reply-to: saunders@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu's message of 16 Nov 90 16:24:07 GMT This discussion has nothing in particular to do with NeXT computers but it originated here and from recent discussions clearly touches on issues of concern to people who read this group (the price, quality and availablity of useful software). > The way to make money from software is to provide little online help > and make it more difficult to use than it needs to be--like, say, > MicroSoft Word--so users have to buy a manual (from *you*)--or to get > such a broad distribution through bundling it (the Osborne/NeXT > approach, practiced on the original Mac but abandoned at the behest of > MicroSludge, whoops, MicroSoft) that a million tiny royalty > payments will add up to something substantial. > This is simply an immature view. While it is true that some commercial software houses worry about people copying their manuals (both by xeroxing and by electronic duplication), successful businesses do not depend on making products that are 'more difficult to use than they need to be.' (One might ask about IBM, but IBM has always known that its money comes from service not products per se, and so compatibility often takes precedence over usability.) Software today typically is too expensive for individuals due to high costs of development and marketing and investor expectations of large returns. This expense however does not deter individual desire to procure software. The result is that individuals violate license agreements by duplicating software and software companies market mainly to other companies where they have a chance of maintaining a useful margin. Two solutions are apparent. Drive the cost of development down (here's the NeXT tie-in) so that software can be made affordable for individuals. Realistically, the technology to remove the skilled human intensiveness from software development is over fifteen years away. The second is to segment the market the way the telephone operating companies do: one rate for businesses; a lower one for individuals. This is unlikely to be popular with software developers because the support needs are reversed from that of the telephone industry. Individuals using software are often less well trained than their corporate counterparts and also lack an in-house support staff to which to turn (individual telephone needs are today simplistic enough so as not to need an in-house support staff). In the PC market, the cost of support can quickly outstrip the price of a software package and so the problem remains. > As I said, it became *very* clear from net discussion of the > profitability of shareware that almost *no* users would actually pay > for it, debugged or not. That's why there are *no* major shareware > packages. You yourself have apparently just confessed > that you don't pay for *all* the shareware you keep, because the > programmer "might" be hoarding a better version. > Net news readers represent a very different market from that of the entire software consumer spectrum. Many of the most frequent contributers represent the poor student population, along with its frugal culture. Corporate people have a time constraint. Registering and generating funds for every useful little shareware product becomes an excessive burden, making many simply do without. The solution is either for the market to develop so that it makes sense for companies to hire software licensing agents (as they do librarians who deal with publishers in obtaining books) or for independent software developers to pool their resources and publish CD-ROMs worth of software that can be purchased in one shot. So there is no need to rave about software pirates or the sluggishness of corporations, all one must do is open one's eyes to the customers needs and the answers will appear. -- Bob Weiner rsw@cs.brown.edu