meshes…
<<I am realistic. I'm also IPAS developer, so I know how long was the studying
phase. But I'm living in the East Europe, so I know that from the business
point of view, the mentioned IPAS price is unacceptable. I am sure, that it is
better to get less money than to sell nothing>>
Ok, so you live in Eastern Europe and you you've got your cheap labor and
resources. I'm not saying that you shouldn't sell the product at a much lower
price over there. It's your money. But don't confuse the retail price with the
amount of actual income that developer receives. The price directly reflects
the cost of development and support. Those costs are much higher in the West
and that's why we cannot bring our prices down. IPAS, wordprocessors and games
are all software. However they sell to different markets and if you do not
understand the relationship between the size of the market and the unit price
then I have to refer you to some sort of basic business textbook.
<<BTW, your words about ripping off the Americans is not so unreal. If you as a
foreigner will come to Prague, your price for hotel will be 100% higher than
for me as a Czech. It is a normal practice here. All hotels, restaurants etc.
have special prices for foreigners. I think that this is terrible, but this
practice exists.>>
I understand that this is the standard practice in Eastern Europe but this is
not the way to attract foreigners, is it?
<< I wanted to buy, but in the Autodesk office told me that this is a normal
practice to get the 3DS and Toolkit as a registered MM developer.>>
Well, that may be true but as you admitted your MM department consists of only
one person working late at night. How can you compare yourself to the teams
working on multimedia products for 12 or more months? You've got no touch with
reality Pavel.
<<If there will be no market for $100 IPAS, I'll lower the price.>>
Let us know when you make your first 'IPAS' million (American $, not Czech
koruns…).
<<I am affraid that you didn't fully understand what I wrote. I didn't mention
high prices as a excuse for pirating software. I only objectively described the
situation here. And as I was able to see the development of the software market
here in Czech in last four years, low prices is the best protection against
software piracy. Almost all leading software companies like Microsoft, Borland,
Lotus, Novell have special prices for east european market. Autodesk products
are also much cheaper here. Of course, reexport of these products is strictly
prohibited.>>
I understand this too well. Those low prices are subsidized by the users over
here. Large companies which are able to release software in hundreds of
thousands of copies can afford that luxury. People working on specialist
software like IPAS processes can't do that because they release fewer copies of
their products.
<<But if you are selling IPAS in the US, why not to sell them in the East
Europe (with lower prices) if you can. Better to sell 100 copies per $100 than
to sell nothing. If I want to hit the market, I need to have acceptable
prices>>
By now you should know that $100 is not what I'd get as a developer. I do not
have to sell to Eastern Europe. There is no law in this world that says so. It
is better to sell 100 copies at $300 (retail) and have 100 legitimate users
that to sell 500 at $100 (retail) and have
500 legitimate users and 2,000 pirates.
<<The situation is much better now. It is possible to say that there is the
normal software market. And this market was built thanks to the policy of
special prices.>>
Yeah, but your law system does not protect intellectual property.
<< And this market was built thanks to the policy of special prices.>>
Yes, but at what cost? Why should I finance your cheap prices? You say that the
first copyright legislation was introduced four years ago. This means that
Eastern Europe was freely allowed to steal PC software for around ten years.
And you want low prices? Please think for a minute. Think Pavel.
<<Actually, I was for a long time in Germany and Austria. And as a owner of
computer company, I think that I understand the problem a bit <BG>.>>
I'll leave that last sentence from your message without any comments.
I really enjoy this conversation, I really do 🙂
Best regards,
Jacek Artymiak (Bitmap Studios Ltd.)