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That's because probably most of their revenue comes not through direct marketing but through site-wide licensing. This is compounded with the fact that Mathema

That's because probably most of their revenue comes not through direct marketing but through site-wide licensing. This is compounded with the fact that Mathematica's main advantage is in its combinatorial possibilities (just like other more popular programming languages), and not in any specific application. Think of it as marketing Lego blocks as a business-to-business product. So your university / company has a licence, and you are naturally sceptical about something that has a definitely weird syntax, they need to tell you "this can help you somehow" and "it's actually better this way". And if your employee asks you for a licence, and you are naturally sceptical, they need to tell you "this is actually useful in tons of other problems".

michaelwww 13y ago
It must be a hard sell at the prices they charge compared to free and open source Python Scientific, Financial, etc... (http://www.scipy.org/ http://www.scipy.org/)
- reeses 13y ago
  I'm not sure they have to do much 'selling'. They had a product on the market at the right time to become 'the' solution for computational math. As with many applications or languages (or, in this case, both), being exposed to it at the right time creates a client for life. Those lifers become evangelists in the same way lispniks do (and watch out for those of us who are both), requesting that employers license the software. If you are between, say, 35 and 45, went to a "decent" university (i.e., one Wolfram and/or NeXT targeted), and have an applied math background of any sort (CS, physics, engineering, etc.), you were very likely exposed to Mathematica. It's just a few steps from there to having a prof use it in a lab or using it because an employer had made a previous investment in development. At that point, much as with C, or Java, or CLISP, or whatever, it becomes a fallback computational tool. SAS acquires many of its licensees in a very similar way.
- IvyMike 13y ago
  As I work through the Project Euler problems, I'm constantly amazed by the Mathematica solutions. Very often, I look at their answer and think "that's cheating... it was way too easy in Mathematica". So as a non-Mathematica user, it certainly appears to be a very effective technology, and in the right hands and right domain, it seems like it could pay for itself very, very quickly.
  - mietek 13y ago
    Looking through Project Euler solutions sounds like a great way to learn Mathematica!

michaelwww 13y ago

It must be a hard sell at the prices they charge compared to free and open source Python Scientific, Financial, etc... (http://www.scipy.org/ http://www.scipy.org/)

reeses 13y ago
I'm not sure they have to do much 'selling'. They had a product on the market at the right time to become 'the' solution for computational math. As with many applications or languages (or, in this case, both), being exposed to it at the right time creates a client for life. Those lifers become evangelists in the same way lispniks do (and watch out for those of us who are both), requesting that employers license the software. If you are between, say, 35 and 45, went to a "decent" university (i.e., one Wolfram and/or NeXT targeted), and have an applied math background of any sort (CS, physics, engineering, etc.), you were very likely exposed to Mathematica. It's just a few steps from there to having a prof use it in a lab or using it because an employer had made a previous investment in development. At that point, much as with C, or Java, or CLISP, or whatever, it becomes a fallback computational tool. SAS acquires many of its licensees in a very similar way.
IvyMike 13y ago
As I work through the Project Euler problems, I'm constantly amazed by the Mathematica solutions. Very often, I look at their answer and think "that's cheating... it was way too easy in Mathematica". So as a non-Mathematica user, it certainly appears to be a very effective technology, and in the right hands and right domain, it seems like it could pay for itself very, very quickly.
- mietek 13y ago
  Looking through Project Euler solutions sounds like a great way to learn Mathematica!