Suppose I decide to make my own library commercially available and suppose
that Insightful is interested in my library. I then may agree with
Insightful about this deal...
I give Insightful my codes
Insightful transofrm my messy codes into something faster, efficient and
robust so that everyone can use them
Insightful sells my library as a separate module
we share the profits the same way we shared the effort
This seems to me to be a quite honest deal and marketing strategy.
Moreover, there are very few modules in S+ compared with all the other
packages available on the market and each single module is so higly
specialized that it seems to me quite fare to pay for it separatelly.
Of course this is just an example and only my personal opinion ...
Ciao
Andrea
-----Original Message-----
From: s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
[mailto:s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu]On Behalf Of
P.J.Wells@open.ac.uk
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 4:04 PM
To: s-news@wubios.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: [S] Estimating distributions
In response to David Smith's remark that:
>Despite the name, EnvironmentalStats is useful in just about
>all areas of
>statistics.
Bert Gunter wrote:
>If this is the case, why isn't this functionality already in
>S-Plus? Is it
>sensible marketing to say: "We have additional features that almost all
>users would find useful but which you must pay extra for?" I
>would have
>thought that "basic" features of interest to almost all users
>would be in
>the base product. Special modules with special features for
>subsets of users
>would be extra-cost add-ons.
I loudly echo his first question.
However, as an economist I fear I can see all too many answers to his
following question about Insightful's strategy.
Without giving a lecture, they're all basically directed at getting each
possible customer to pay what they (the customer) think the product is worth
-- "price discrimination", in economists' jargon.
That is why you will search the company's web-site in vain for anything
resembling a list price.
Clearly they have decided, correctly or otherwise, that in fact enough
people *will* pay $xxx for the basic product without worrying (at first?)
about the absence of the features in EnvironmentalStats, and that those who
do definitely need them can be persuaded to cough-up some more $xxx to get
them.
I agree that it seems silly (or at least inefficient) marketing, if only
from Insightful's point of view.
I hadn't heard of the module until it was pointed out to me, and if I *had*
spotted it myself I might have passed it over on the grounds that it
probably wouldn't be of interest, not being in the environmental field.
Why not call it S-Plus Extra, or similar?
(Note, though, that I enquired about the functionality -- thus marking me
out as someone who might well be happy to produce many $xxx to get it).
Julian Wells
OU Business School
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom
+44 1908 654658
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