"Introducing New LiveCode Licenses"

[Mark Wilcox]

>> I really have no idea how you can say that. There is no argumentation for your statement.


Here's some argumentation - I'm a developer that is new to LiveCode and interested in using it commercially in the future. I'm proficient in more languages than I have fingers, so I automatically assume that a book with "for the Real Beginner" in the title is not going to be suitable for me.

I must confess there's another reason I haven't even looked at the book - this community is incredibly friendly and supportive, even Richmond's rants are obviously backed by positive intentions. I only see one person regularly posting abrasive responses like this one, I can't say it's the best sales tactic I've ever seen. I realise email is a very easy medium for messages to be misunderstood, so please take that as friendly feedback on your posting style as at least one reader perceives it.

All this said, I do think RunRev have probably got their pricing strategy wrong. The cross-platform tools with large growing user bases and decent profits (there aren't many of them) all have some kind of limited free commercial license - often both feature limited and with a revenue cap on the person/organisation. They also have more expensive full licenses than RunRev. Trying to cover everyone with a single license fee is almost definitely sub-optimal. From the VisionMobile research (6000 developers last time - they have another survey running now) I can say that about 1/3 of all mobile app developers are hobbyists and another 10+% are "explorers" - part time app developers with another, usually development related, day job. Without a free commercial option these people will not start a potentially commercial (even small scale) project in LiveCode, whereas, if you can get people started there's a chance they'll either be successful and want more, or
 just invest enough time in the project that a little license fee to get more features for their beloved creation doesn't seem so big. However, it's got to be scary to have a model that's barely supporting a big enough team to keep the product running and risk throwing away existing revenue hoping for a bigger future payoff. I don't know about anyone else but the level and tone of marketing I'm getting at the moment smells a bit of desperation.