Quote:
Originally Posted by Amothea
...I'm still rather young and grew up with the internet that it does impact how I think of the prices for programs. I kind of expect them to cost the same amount as computer games or x-box games. You can't tell me those don't cost money to make either.
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The thing is, i don't think people are listening
In YouthWorld™ aka Your Future Customers, the economics of what a thing is worth is based on a different...way of thinking, most due to availability of information in its many forms.
Asking people under 25 these questions we debate now will get some interesting data, should you choose to use it. Let's look at some:
Video Games: Video Games seem to be the yardstick of price/cost/value that they use to measure. A "Triple A" software title (ok, this is confusing; they mean A++, not Minor League. I know. I KNOW.) on the
Most Powerful Hardware Evar!!! costs $40-$60Million USD to make and sells for $40-$60.
By their reasoning, nothing that costs less than this to make should cost more than the price of a game. I've seen, read and heard this
MANY MANY times.
Linux: Linux for many has re-defined the value of the sticker price of an OS. Just as Windows was a "good enough" alternative to Mac OS*, so too is Linux the next stage of this process.
You may argue to and fro of the merits of this thinking, but it is the future and if you think its going to swing back in the "old media" direction its a bad bet if you ask me. Its not that I am an "advocate" of this, but it is what it is.
Adapt or die.
*This is not meant to spark a Platform war, but is written as an historical perspective. The lower priced (remember...the price of the Windows OS has risen over time...a curious anomaly indeed with respect to All Things Computing) Windows on commodity hardware was seen as a better deal that the Mac OS on Mac OS hardware, tho not entirely...comparable but certainly "good enough" for the price difference.