the high price of some software packages...

[Geert van den Berg]

I'd like to point out that the main topic of this thread is, that the end users have no idea about the value of the software and even if they did, is the asking price for the software, a fair price?

[dominic hoenig]

i personally feel software asking prices are a bit high, i understand the whole needing to make a sustainable profit amongst industry competitors.

but as stated by above poster, the only away around it is to find similar cheaper alternative products that really are brilliant, *massey* etc.

especially considering how rapid upgrades come along within this industry plug in wise as well.

in some cases you'd be close to buying a peice of hardware that can do a better job in most cases.

there must be some way around the high prices, i feel a drop in price would incline more people to buy the product, i have always felt buying the product is much more beneficial (tech support etc) so always have, but we're living in a world where quantity over quality is becoming an issue. and of course the ignorance of people is to blame but also i feel the companies for the high prices could be at slight fault as well.

[mcballs]

Quality software is extremely expensive to develop and, like anything else, its price is set by the market forces of supply and demand (not withstanding inefficiencies such as market manipulation, subsidies, piracy/theft, etc).

If someone doesn't like the price of a given piece of software they can always try to write something comparable on their own and see how that goes.

Do you think that a nice high end stereo preamp has $2,000 worth of parts in it? Of course not - you're also paying for the development cost. The difference is with software there's very little material cost, it is cost of developing the intellectual property what you're paying for.

[Geert van den Berg]

I was a bit thinking out loud when I started this thread. I understand completely what you're saying, but high quality hardware is also expensive to develop and has higher manufacturing costs, even if the final product is actually cheaper in parts than the asking price.

You might say, but there's more support required with software, but isn't that a poor excuse for software that actually still is in Beta stage.