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Why Not? We do, in one of our product areas. The software products are sold at a fair price and most of our customers expect to use the products for many years
by bdfh42 18y ago
Why Not? We do, in one of our product areas. The software products are sold at a fair price and most of our customers expect to use the products for many years into the future - probably decades. Thus we provide free upgrades for all users.
It helps on the maintenance front as well. We can "kill off" support for very old versions by encouraging such users to move to a later one.
Some software sales models depend upon selling upgrades - alternately you price for "lifetime use" and enjoy a long term relationship with your customers.
- hermitcrab 18y ago>price for "lifetime use" But how do you know how long the life of the product will be? Also, the higher up-front cost might put customers off.
- bdfh42 18y agoI agree that in many instances estimating the life expectancy (from the customer's viewpoint) is difficult but in others it can be reasonably straightforward. In the software instance that we offer free upgrades for life we are clear that our customers anticipate building and maintaining a body of data over very long periods of time - they select our product because they are persuaded both that our software meets their data recording needs AND that we are going to be sticking around maintaining that software long into the future.
- hermitcrab 18y ago>AND that we are going to be sticking around maintaining that software long into the future Personally I would have more confidence that you would be around in 5 years if you were charging for upgrades.
- bdfh42 18y agoPersonally I prefer new sales - it means you are still getting it right and not milking your customers.