Wish Let us pay more for B4A!

[Troberg]

I want to pay more!

Actually, it's not to pay more that I want, but I want an option where I can buy a license with upgrades that don't run out. Call me lazy, but I prefer to buy once and be done with it, and to know that I truly "own" the product, not just "rent" it a couple of years at the time.

I want "buy once and it's mine forever".

 

[DonManfred]

Cou can buy an license incl 2 or 24 months of upgrades.
You can use this version FOREVER.
Also your Account here in forum is forever.

But if @Erel offers a version with lifetime upgrades i would buy this too

 

[sorex]

Actually, when you are lucky you can have several versions (x.y) and subversions (3.x) in the 2 years of your license.

With other software you need to pay again for an upgrade to the newer version or worst case buy it again.

So you should make profit with this license time if you take 2 years.

 

[Troberg]

I already have two years, but I'd like to have lifetime (and am prepared to pay for it).

True, two

years are better than nothing (I've had to buy expensive software at full price for a new version, unexpectedly released about a month after I bought the previous version. Is it any wonder that one sometimes is tempted to let the magic of the internet provide instead?), but it it still means that every two years, there'll be an unexpected cost (Yeah, I have bad memory when it comes to such things. Every time I need to pay for my domains, I'm like "Didn't I just do that???".).

Also, it would give more money up front for further development.

 

[sorex]

if you don't feel like paying again then there is no problem at all. You just might miss new features that you could use.

and it's not really an unexpected cost either, you know it's a 2 years upgrade "contract"

 

[Troberg]

The thing is, I want the updates.

As for unexpected, anything that happens on a two year cycle is seldom enough to be unexpected for me.

Anyway, sure, there are workarounds, but, if I had a choice, lifetime license is what I would choose. I'm just informing that there is a customer demand for it (albeit, perhaps, not a widespread demand). If it would happen, I would be happy and buy it as soon as my two years are up. And, who knows, I might get struck by lightning and not live two more years, in which case it would certainly be good business...

 

[ivan.tellez]

ifetime license

You already bought a "lifetime license" of the current version, also a "lifetime license" of the versions in the next 2 years.

 

[Troberg]

I know, and you know what I mean.

As far as I'm concerned, software that isn't updated soon dies, and especially so when it comes to development tools (and even more so when they target a volatile platform like Android...).

 

[ac9ts]

After my 2 years, I didn't immediately renew. I watched a few updates that were not as relevant to me. When an update came that would solve an issue I was having (or would foresee), I updated. I believe the "Build Configuration" option was the one that I jumped on as I was wrestling with how to release paid vs. free versions of essentially the same code without having to keep separate projects.

 

[RandomCoder]

I know exactly where @Troberg is coming from. In fact I renewed for another two year license well ahead of my present license expiring. I recognise that this is a great product and whilst I only use it as a hobby, I would be willing to pay more for a one off license with lifelong upgrades. The question I guess is how much more???

 

[stevel05]

I think that for software, the current licensing model is excellent. A very reasonable cost for two years updates. There will be people who don't renew after one or two cycles, but there will be more people tempted to try it by the relatively low cost.

From a developers point of view, selling a one off licence would bring a little more revenue at the beginning, but it would soon slow down if the mainstream users all bought it.

From a users point of view, if everyone bought the forever licence, where is the incentive for the developer to keep pushing the product forward? As users we could perhaps save a few pounds/dollars/euros etc, if we are expecting to use it for a long time.

If I were in that position and had to provide a lifetime license, I would think it reasonable to set the price at somewhere between 5 and 10 times the two year license cost.

From a technical perspective, no one knows how long Android, IOS and Java will remain an attractive/interesting platform to use and develop on. In 5 years, there could be a completely new OS that takes over, Anywhere Software could develop a new B4 for that, and it could make B4a/B4i/B4j redundant.

In a fast moving world, I think the current licensing strategy makes sense all round.

 

[Deleted member 103]

I understand you, somehow this license does not match in the Android-world.
All apps that we sell in google-play must be updated for the whole lifetime without being paid again.
But I also understand Erel and its licensing policy.

 

[stevel05]

All apps that we sell in google-play must be updated for the whole lifetime without being paid again.

Not necessarily, support and bug fixing yes, and with upgraded OS's it could be a challenge to keep them working as the users expect them to. You could always release a new version with additional support / features as a separate App. Whether your existing users decide to upgrade would be up to them. You could also sell updated data sets through on line purchasing of you wanted to.

 

[moster67]

Must agree with @stevel05

 

[Troberg]

From a users point of view, if everyone bought the forever licence, where is the incentive for the developer to keep pushing the product forward?

True if the market is saturated. However, I think there is plenty of potential to keep getting new customers, and there's your incentive.

If I were in that position and had to provide a lifetime license, I would think it reasonable to set the price at somewhere between 5 and 10 times the two year license cost.

Sounds reasonable to me, though the high end of the scale is getting close to my pain limit.

From a technical perspective, no one knows how long Android, IOS and Java will remain an attractive/interesting platform to use and develop on. In 5 years, there could be a completely new OS that takes over, Anywhere Software could develop a new B4 for that, and it could make B4a/B4i/B4j redundant.

Meh, no one can predict the future, in this market or another. I didn't know that Pontiac would be shut down when I bought my Firebird, yet it's still rolling on the road. I didn't know that Honda would shut down their local brand workshop when I got my CRV, but, if a generic workshop can't fix it, I just grind my teeth and drives 150 km to the next nearest workshop then drive 150 km back (this is assuming that they can fix it while I wait, otherwise it's a two person, two car, dual trip operation...). Yet, neither of these risks has stopped me from making these, rather large, investments. Sometimes, one just have to take risks.

All apps that we sell in google-play must be updated for the whole lifetime without being paid again.

Not really. We get happy customers, which tells their friends about our product, and their friends buy it, which means more happy customers. And so on.

I have a rule of thumb that one good sale with a happy customer nets you five more customers. If they as well are happy, well, apply the rule recursively.

On the other hand, my combined app sales has just about made me enough money to buy a pizza (which I don't understand, as they are solid apps, two in high competition areas and one more or less without competion), so don't take advise from me...

Edit: One clarification:

I'm not saying that the current policy is inherently bad, I just want another option as well.

 

[Deleted member 103]

I know other software manufacturers demand for their products much more.
In the company where I work a software that is used with the following costs:
1x license = 20000 €
1x Maintenance / year = 20% of price

When the maintenance / year is canceled then the software can not be used anymore.

So I can say that what Erel requires a comparative absolutely not much.

 

[Troberg]

At my last job, we had a similar pricing (although our maintenance was even higher). However, this was very specialized systems on a very finite market, often with no competition, and they were critical for the customer.

Mass products tend to go under another pricing scheme.

 

[sorex]

I'm feeling the same as @ac9ts at the moment. My B4A license expired but I'm still waiting for improvements asked months/years ago to renew.

To bad we don't have a feature request list with given priorities on this forum so that we know when to expect what.

Erel likes to surprise us with new things which is great but some requested features or bugs
that require sometimes minimal work to fix/implement have sometimes more priority imho.

In my case the tree reorder fix and the #if B4A #if B4i feature that was promoted are highly required at the moment
as working with 2 completely seperate projects of the same app is a real pain in the you know what when doing mods in the same kind of class.

Edit: a minimal BAL > BIL import that can import common views is also on my list, now we need to recreate everything manually.

So a list with bugs and request with a link to the forum thread and an estimated release number or date would be nice to keep track of things.

 

[Erel]

In my case the tree reorder fix and the #if B4A #if B4i feature that was promoted are highly required at the moment

Which issues do you refer to?

#If B4A / B4I is supported.

 

[sorex]

the tree order is posted in the bug/feature forum a few days ago as request.

is the #if supported in B4A aswell? I thought it was only in B4i so far and it would be in the next update of B4A?