From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,418eee8ddc2d89f5,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-11 19:47:04 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!ACM.ORG!SUNDOG Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-VMS-To: IN%"condic@psavax.pwfl.com" X-VMS-Cc: IN%"info-ada@vm1.nodak.edu" MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Message-ID: <01HGZY4E2LKQ00CQE7@PASCAL.ACM.ORG> Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 20:04:09 -0500 Sender: Ada programming language From: ISAAC PENTINMAKI Subject: Re: fantastic Ada promotional piece from Rational(long) Comments: To: condic@psavax.pwfl.com Comments: cc: info-ada@vm1.nodak.edu Date: 1994-09-11T20:04:09-05:00 List-Id: >to: CONDIC@PSAVAX.PWFL.COM >To: IN%"INFO-ADA@VM1.NoDak.EDU" "Recipients of INFO-ADA digests" >Subject: Re: Fantastic Ada promotional piece from Rational (long) C>Of course, this was tried by R&R Software years ago and it didn't ... C>put into selling it to the general populace. (I saw adds in C>specialized journals, but never saw anything in Byte, nor was it C>on the shelf at the local software store.) General ? Like most compiler companies the effort was directed at programers (unlike other Ada companies we advertised to the commercial market from the start, it tooks us about 4 months to find out that Telesoft even had a competing product back in Aug 1981) The ads were placed in the original DDJ which competed mostly with 'C' and Borland Pascal ads (this is before Microsoft existed), we also tried the more general publications of Infoworld and Byte (look for 1/4 page ads). Later ads appeared in Microsystems Journal, Pc World and I think a couple other magazines that Ziff-Davis bought and then murdered. At that time (<1983) the 1/4 page ad cost about $ 500/ad with 3 time insertion, which is about all that we could budget at that time. The same ad today costs several thousand dollars and tends be totally lost in the magazine. Also it has been my experiance that software stores like most commercial enterprises do not stock software unless they have experianced multiple requests for the software (some mail order chains are the same way) due to the overhead of shipping, keeping stock and low margins on software costing less than $ 500.00. For example the last quote I had for a dealer cost on Windows 3.0 was $ 85.00 but I could buy it retail for less than $99.00. After shipping costs you might gross $ 9 on a sale which is not worth while unless you are talking large quantities or bundling. MF>Many Ada vendors have told me they were pricing for margin, not volume. MF>These companies (the ones with the Ada/PC compilers) convinced themselves MF>that Ada would always be a low-volume thing, and thereby guaranteed MF>that Ada would be a low-volume thing. I don't think anyone seriously MF>tested the elasticity; look how hard it is even to find out that Yeah right, 5 years of marketing our prevalidated Ada compiler at various prices from $ 99 to $ 1000 from 1981..1986 proved nothing. But then we never had the marketing/investor money of Telsoft,Alsys or Rational to take more than 1 year at a time playing with the prices. Since About 1989 the prices have been more stable in the $500-1000 range for most of the products and introductory packages at around $ 100. Isaac These views are my own and do not represent the views of my ex-employer.