Re: It costs how much?!!?!

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Bruce Bowler (bbowler@bigelow.org) writes:
 
> I've said it before and I'll say it again...  RSI/Kodak ought to GIVE
> AWAY the student version.  There is no better way to get penetration
> into the workplace than to have new hires experienced in using your
> product.  There's no better way to get students to use a product than to
> GIVE it to them.

I think the impression most people have is that if
someone is giving something away, it's not worth 
much. I do think it makes sense though to charge
a reasonable price for students. (I'm thinking 
something in the range of $200, which seems to
be the going academic pricing if people can get
it together enough to order a site license.
That seems fair to me, given what you can do
with IDL.)

But I have to admit, I haven't had much luck
selling software. A much more effective strategy
(for me anyway) is to give software away and
then sell the documentation to it. People seem
willing to pay quite a lot for *that*. :-)

Cheers,

David

P.S. Let's just say that I briefly had something less
than the 35,000th most popular book on Amazon last week.
That's pretty rarified air for a *documentation*
specialist. :-)

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
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