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From: phil@unisoft.UUCP (phil ronzone)
Newsgroups: net.audio,net.micro
Subject: Re: CD-ROMs
Message-ID: <569@unisoft.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 23:13:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: unisoft.569
Posted: Fri Sep 27 23:13:42 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 00:53:33 EDT
References: <830@homxb.UUCP> <512@moncol.UUCP>
Reply-To: phil@unisoft.UUCP (Phil Ronzone)
Organization: UniSoft Systems, Berkeley
Lines: 27
Xref: watmath net.audio:5969 net.micro:12173

In article <512@moncol.UUCP> ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder) writes:
>
>I just bought Lotus 1-2-3 for $300.  Let's see.  There are 3 disks in
>the package- at wholesale prices, that's about $3.  It appears Lotus
>Development is using a pricing factor of 100, is this a standard value
>is the software business?
>
>Ben Broder
>..ihnp4!princeton!moncol!ben
>..vax135!petsd!moncol!ben

I am not sure if this was done tongue in cheek or not. Does Mr. Broder
actually believe that the only or major pricing factor in software is
the cost of the media that it is distributed on?

The ``cost'' of Lotus 1-2-3 is based on the cost of the people and plant
needed to program, document, bean-count, etc. the product. Plus any failures
that didn't make it our the door, plus advertising.

Then there are dealer discounts (how do those dealers make their money, eh?)

In concrete terms, I could duplicate Lotus 1-2-3 for about $1,500,000.

Of course, 1-2-3 is already a winner, so now I'm risking 1.5 million on
the chance of it being a winner.

It is very costly to do software.


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