Despite the relative size of the Acorn software market, some of the most innovative programmers in the world develop for it, producing new software of all kinds. The Acorn market has developed in such a way that the user's expectation of likely cost of any new product is that it should be relatively cheap, and the expectation of bug-fixes/upgrades is that they will be cost-free for anything other than a major revision. Put together, these two facts mean that Acorn machines start out with a price advantage for software, but it is rare that this is high enough to provide adequate compensation for the designers and programmers to continue development of world-beating packages.
It seems, therefore, that there must be some new mechanism to attract the purchaser to buy relatively cheap software initially and to guarantee the continued development over the years - even replacement with the next generation when the time comes. If one looks at the PC/Mac markets, the sort of software which we, on Acorns, get for, say, £150 is priced at two or even three times as much. Add to that the very much larger market and the fact that upgrades are (almost) never free, and the inference is obvious!
Perhaps Pineapple Software had it right when they introduced the subscription virus scheme? Perhaps Spacetech have gone part of the way with plugins for Photodesk - which are paid for individually by those who wish to have them. Have Beebug joined this trend with Ovation Pro? Hard to tell!
It would seem that as long as a package is useful, people who bought it will use it and should, I believe, be prepared to pay for their use as long as they want bug-fixes and upgrades to enhance its usability - even to produce complete newer versions. It would seem to me that the kind of purchase price the Acorn market has for software packages is about right. It is certainly a great attraction in comparison with other machines. The key, however, has to be the added attraction of Subscription Support - like first of all paying an entry fee to a club (the purchase price) and then an annual subscription to pay for the support/bug-fix/development work.
How would this work out in practice for an individual user? It all depends on the packages owned, but taking my own usage as relatively straightforward, the sums would come out something like this:
| DTP package | £200 + £20pa |
| Spreadsheet | £150 + £15pa |
| Drawing package | £150 + £15pa |
| Database | £100 + £10pa |
| Network software | £200 + £20pa |
| Editor | £50 + £5pa |
| Miscellaneous shareware, etc. | £150 + £15pa |
Adding this up comes to around a £1000 purchase price plus £100 a year over, say, five years, comes to £1500. Depending on the actual software involved, this 'life-time' cost for all software is considerably less than the initial cost of software of the same quality on other machines.
Working this way we ensure that we are paying for software upkeep as long as we wish. The programmers are paid! The users get value for money and the incentive to pay extra for a major new version when it comes out. If use of one package ceases because of changing home/work/school circumstances, the subscription may be stopped. The user has an up-to-date copy to continue to work with as long as desired and, if circumstances change again, may be asked for a modest 're-entry' fee for rejoining the 'club' in some later year.
Unless we adopt some scheme like this, we will all be overtaken by the next/latest PC/Mac package. If we do adopt it, we will always be ahead and paying less in total than the others!
Subscriptionware, the way ahead?
Disagree? Then reply!