wired HC article

[Dan Shafer]

At 11:56 AM -0400 8/15/02, Mark Mitchell wrote:
>The Rev/meta people should perhaps make no other changes
>except to start selling the starter kit  for $90 instead of giving it
>away for free.  If its free, people think it has no value or they feel
>uncomfortable, that they are somehow cheating.  Charge a small price for
>it and you will watch the rave reviews and profits come pouring in.

Not sure I agree completely here, Mark, though I *do* take your 
meaning about free vs. valued seriously. I think a *lot* of us who 
have bought into other RAD environments at seemingly low price points 
and then paid a painful learning curve price would probably shy away 
from RR at this point without the freebie.

I think RR has done exactly the right thing on pricing here for the 
state of their development and market penetration. Once there are 
hundreds of thousands of RR users, it will make sense to drop the 
freebie because then there are lots of samples, endorsements, etc. 
Right now, RR is a pretty "new kid on the block" and given that the 
out-of-the-box experience is, for a real beginner, pretty opaque, 
it's not likely that a $99 price point would be conducive to lots of 
new business.

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Dan Shafer
Technology Visionary - Technology Assessment - Documentation
"Looking at technology from every angle"
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