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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,93a8020cc980d113 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: What is wrong with Ada? References: <1176150704.130880.248080@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> <1177160171.286985.167860@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> <1177163425.459427.175280@b58g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> <1177460444.575339.317730@c18g2000prb.googlegroups.com> <1177499996.15508.17.camel@localhost> From: Markus E Leypold Organization: N/A Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:54:51 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Some cool user agent (SCUG) Cancel-Lock: sha1:0TEGUkqWeGqSaGAox4NaQtu3FUQ= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 88.72.230.139 X-Trace: news.arcor-ip.de 1177501613 88.72.230.139 (25 Apr 2007 13:46:53 +0200) X-Complaints-To: abuse@arcor-ip.de Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!proxad.net!213.200.89.82.MISMATCH!tiscali!newsfeed1.ip.tiscali.net!news.tiscali.de!newsfeed.hanau.net!news-fra1.dfn.de!newsfeed.arcor-ip.de!news.arcor-ip.de!not-for-mail Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15282 Date: 2007-04-25T13:54:51+02:00 List-Id: Georg Bauhaus writes: > On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 11:57 +0200, Markus E Leypold wrote: >> On two requests for a >> price list only one vendor bothered to answer and he didn't send a >> list but wanted to know more about me/us (obviously they don't have a >> standard package, but take what you can afford, a particularly >> unsympathetic approach). > > Maybe they don't publicly announce prices to make sure > they can provide affordable solutions? The mirror side is: Charge what you can get. That is something people^Wcustomers don't like. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/07/31.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html And as far as affordable goes: I think I don't need to go into that (again) :-). > Who knows? Yes, who knows. That's why my car vendor doesn't have a price list ... not. Also why Microsoft doesn't have a price list etc. I think one can well see there my argument what is going wrong with some Ada vendors -- no need to elaborate. > Once the price list is out, the rich and/or big profit customers > might start arguing that they do no longer see a reason to pay the > larger sum adequate to large scale use of the tools. Hardly. Just differentiate service contracts and license to use and structure the service into different levels. - Level 0: Only right to use. - Level 1: Right to access a ticket system. - Level 2: Right to browse a bug database / knowledge base about fixed and open bugs. - Level 3: Guarantee response times and quality. This is one option and I think others will turn up. Or if you really think that the cheap licenses are actually under price and not worth the time and effort, then don't offer them. But if the cheap license is still something you earn money with -- don't you think the "big customer" will be somewhat pissed off to discover he pays more than _you_ need, just because he can afford to. > "We heard from this developer that he got ... Then why should we > ...?" I wonder: Do they actually write in the contract that you aren't allowed to disclose you price? Since it is the current setup that incurs the risk that somebody who got a special deal will be blabbing and it will haunt you in your relationship to another customer. > So customer investment in the tools might need more arguing > given a comparatively small customer base; > when MS was smaller they charged $$$$ for MS Word alone. > Suppose they would have tried to prevent copying... If you mean they didn't charge for DOS -- you're wrong. > MS now has a huge market share, they do not seem to abhor a > monopoly, and they can easily afford making developers and > their customers depend on MS offerings. Lamps and oil, > printers and ink, Developers and office solutions. > Of course, I'm just guessing. Well -- you can go on guessing. I'm almost sure that your thoughts to a certain extend agree with those of certain Ada vendors and the spin -- "to make sure they can provide affordable solutions" -- is certainly identical. But that proves in my eyes exactly that they are absolutely clueless about marketing and customer psychology -- if they really think like that. Regards -- Markus