Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 15:52:07 +0100
Reply-To: John Whittington <johnw@MAG-NET.CO.UK>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: John Whittington <johnw@MAG-NET.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Missed opportunity?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Theo DP <theodp@AOL.COM> wrote:
>You're right about paying for Microsoft products once:
>
>* You paid once for Microsoft Works...
>* And once for Microsoft Word 2.0...
>* And once for Microsoft Word 6.0...
>* And once for Microsoft Office 4.2...
>* And once for Microsoft Office 4.2 Professional...
>* And once for Microsoft Office '95 Professional...
>* And once for Microsoft Office '97 Small Business Edition...
>* And once for Microsoft Office '97 Standard Edition...
>* And once for Microsoft Office '97 Professional...
Theo - surely the point is that not everyone wants/needs to upgrade that
often. With MS products, they only pay again if/when they decide to
upgrade; SI force people to pay again (and again, and again ...) even if
they decide *not* to upgrade. If SI offered a 'perpetual' licence, small
(and poor) users like me would probably still be using 6.10 at the moment -
and then maybe wouldn't pay to upgrade until 7.0 (more likely 7.1).
I often wonder at the PR wisdom of SI's licensing policies, since so many
people get 'hot under the collar' about this. If they *did* offer perpetual
licences, with a charge for technical support after the first year, and
*full* (not renewal) prices for each upgrade, then I strongly suspect that
their turnover would be just as great (quite probably greater), but most
users would be much happier because they felt 'in control' of the
choices/decisions!
Regards
John
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