Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nuchat!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies) Message-ID: <2483@ficc.uu.net> Date: 18 Dec 88 05:18:58 GMT References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> <2210@stiatl.UUCP> Organization: SCADA Lines: 47 In article <2210@stiatl.UUCP>, john@stiatl.UUCP (John DeArmond) writes: > In article <2460@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > >If you want lower prices, get as many people as you can to buy computers and > >buy... not steal... software. As the size of the market goes up, prices will > >fall. Trust me. > Well, lets see now. hmmmm. I can think of Lotus 123, Dbase III.... > Wordperfect... Crosstalk... VIP Professional... Foxbase... Mirror. I don't know of any WP clones, but that's understandable. I think Wysiwyg is a waste of time, so I don't pay attention to that market. > well now, boys and girls, can anybody pick a product out of this list that > has come down significantly in price? NO? I did not think so. Now, boys > and girls, does anybody know of lower priced clones for any of the above > products? Ah, you're making my point for me. These products *have* come down significantly in price... not under those names, but generic products that do what the originals did faster, better, and cheaper. Think of cars. There's no way a Cadillac Cimarron is going to come down in price... but if what you want is "a family car with a decent engine" instead of "a Cadillac Cimarron", just wait. And pick up a Mazda 626 Turbo, or the Ford Taurus with the V6, or whatever else comes along. You win, Ford wins, and Lotus... I mean GM... loses. > YES? I thought so. Could it be that COMPETITION and not size > of the market is what has some effect on prices? And size of the market has an effect on competition. How many cheap clones are there for the UNIX market? I can't think of *any* cheap software for UNIX. Why? because the market is so small. And how about the tiny markets? Atari ST, Amiga, Acorn, and so on? About all I can think of is VIP Professional, and Word Perfect. There are several products that I know of that have been dropped because the market, *after piracy was factored in* was too small. New companies will produce better products at a lower price, if they think they can get a decent return on their work. The bigger the market, the more people will make the decision to get in... and the lower prices will get. Market forces work, but unless there are a lot of suppliers there's no elasticity in supply for them to work on. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Work: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Home: bigtex!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.uu.net.