#PC BOYCOTT
2 messages in this thread
I don't know what it is with this forum, but it seems like a
lot of you guys here can't have a discussion without including or
finishing up with an insult. This discussion is getting old but just
to address what you said; I have not said that making a profit was a
bad thing. My God! I,myself would be out of business. What I said in
the original message is that I think that some of the profit margins
on hardware and software alike are a little steep. It's a fact. I
don't care what you have to say about Econ101.
I am in this industry, I've been in this industry for 6 years,
since before Autodesk introduced Studio. I've seen the major changes
going on with prices. I know that originally you had a core of
software publishers that charged a certain price. Then along comes an
ambitous company that says "hey, we can charge less and still make a
profit and take these guys' business. Then suddenly the price
takes an incredible shift. Guess what, they're still in the industry
and still doing their R&D and still making a profit. A nice one as a
matter of fact. That company was Autodesk!
As of today there's a 100%+ mark-up on computer software. Are
you going to tell me that the retail outlets are conducting their own
R&D? Look, I know the economics of it all but the message that I'm
fist pounding about is that the profit margins are steep.
Don't preach to me about economy basics, go out and do some
research on this market and come to me with details. Your argument
will be much weaker. Don't give me this "let's say" crap. And this
time try to finish your message without an insult.
What insult? I simply asked if someone had mentioned an Econ degree at
the beginning of this thread. I've taught Econ101 and Marketing 101
and it seems as though alot of the discussion in this thread is
totally contrary to elementary principals of those two subjects.
As to the Adesk entry into the market, they simply came in as a
marketing arm and did not have internal R&D and programmers writing
code. The Yost Group as a contracted entity put it together. That was
a different approach from the competitors who had hundreds of people
on staff doing R&D and coding. Gary and his dream team still amaze
the industry on a daily basis by accomplishing with a few
phenomenally talented people the same things that require 10 times
the number at other facilities. It's not as if AT&T and DGS just
decided that if they couldn't make $X profit per unit they would
close up shop. They just could not compete and pay bills at the new
price point.
As to research on the industry, I've published numerous ones on a
graduate and post graduate level. I'm not talking out the side of my
head here, and I'm not solely doing whatifs, I could easily sit down
and spend a couple of months digging into the books of some of these
companies and give you a thorough outline of each dollar that changes
hands and utilize it as a summary of the industry's strong and weak
points and the associated pros and cons of participation in the
industry on various levels. I've done this numerous times for various
corporate entities both as an independant consultant and as a member
of assessment and strategy teams. I did a major one for a large DC
based sales firm just prior to the release of R2, you'd be surprised
what I found out about what types of profit margins are built into
the various packages.
I wasn't preaching, I was simply outlining a few ideas that I thought
may be useful for you to think about.
Since you used Adesk as an example. Aren't you upset that Adesk
charges $3000 a pop for their package when other packages such as
Lightwave get by and make a profit at under $1000 a unit, while
simultaneously porting to evry platform known to man. Surely Adesk
must have at least a 200% markup.
Doesn't make sense, does it? Such generalities as that one just
aren't economically sound and to make them without having "full"
knowledge of what's involved in the production of each individual
package is to mistate the facts.
Time to go …… No closing thoughts ….. Have A Nice Day.