Two things make me sorry for making you type all that:
One, I figured out *after* that email that the price for the renewal
was around 8 bucks. This made me figure out more or less that model's
what you were shooting for.
Second, upon figuring that out, I upgraded anyway, just for the
simplicity of getting the automatic datafile update check, and to
support you guys. I didn't even know that product updates were not
available going to the site like data file updates. Still, it's good
I renewed, since 1.4 just came out and all
Thanks for the in-depth explanation, though. Now if you'd only become
an open-source vendor
Abilio
--- Rob Bowes <rob@wolflair.com> wrote:
> Sorry for taking so long to respond to this post. Between getting
> moved in,
> dealing with all of the problems after the move, and working to get
> V1.4
> released, I've been spread way too thin lately. Thanks for your
> patience.
>
> The licensing mechanism doesn't try to distinguish whether or not a
> user
> makes use of that license or not. The renewal mechanism works the
> same way.
> Just like vehicle registration, the license grants access for the
> specified
> period of time, regardless of whether the user utilizes the license
> or not.
> The renewal process simply extends the original license for another
> year.
> If you elect not to drive your car for 3 months, the state doesn't
> give you
> 3 months credit on your registration. If you let your vehicle
> registration
> lapse for 3 months and then register your car again, you're still
> obligated
> to pay for that 3 months, even if you didn't drive the car during
> that
> time. At least, that's how it works here in California.
>
> In the software industry, there are two common models being
> utilized, and
> we've elected to employ a third. Here's why...
>
> The first common model is the traditional software model, wherein
> the
> consumer has to purchase every new release separately. This
> requires that
> the company stock up lots of new features for a single release that
> will
> justify the consumer spending his money again. The net effect is
> that users
> have to wait significantly longer to see the new features, plus
> they
> typically have to spend significantly more money on the new
> version. From
> our perspective, that's a lose/lose proposition for the consumer.
>
> The second common model is to charge nearly the full original price
> for the
> renewal, such as most virus protection companies do. However, this
> would
> require more complexity in the license management mechanism (more
> work for
> us), and it would ultimately not benefit the consumer compared to
> the
> current model we use. Now you're probably asking "Why?"
>
> With our model, the renewal fee is less than 30% of the original
> price, and
> the mechanics are kept extremely simple. For someone who decides to
> renew
> (for example) three months after the license expires, the renewal
> cost is
> $8.75 for (effectively) nine months. The net "waste" is about $2
> for the
> user to renew the product for those 3 unused months. Using the
> model
> employed by the virus protection companies, the renewal fee for
> Card Vault
> would be $20-25 and the clock would reset based on the renewal.
> That's an
> extra $15 (approximately) and nearly triple the current renewal
> price. If
> you compare the $15 extra cost versus the $2 wasted expense, I'm
> guessing
> most customers would opt for the $2.
>
> Extrapolating this to the rather extreme example you cited, a user
> who
> waits 11 months to renew will essentially need to renew twice to
> obtain a
> year-plus of renewal. The net cost of that is $17.50, which is
> still a fair
> bit lower than the $20-25 it would be if we used the model of the
> virus
> protection companies. Based on all of this, our perspective is that
> our
> model works in the consumer's favor, so we believe that most users
> will
> consider it a better overall model.
>
> Please remember also that no one is required to renew a license.
> The
> renewal entitles the user to another year of product updates and
> use of the
> integrated updates mechanism to get new data files. If a user
> chooses not
> to renew, they can continue using the product and getting new data
> files.
> The key limitations of not renewing are that the product updates
> aren't
> available and the data file updates have to be downloaded manually
> via our
> website and then imported. There's a link on the Help menu to go
> directly
> to the full list of data file updates, and the Import option is
> accessed
> from the Tools menu. So manually retrieving and importing new data
> files is
> not a difficult task.
>
> We keep the renewal price extremely low (compared to virtually all
> other
> software companies) in an effort to make it easy for the user to
> justify
> the expense. And we keep the renewal model simple to minimize any
> confusion
> about how it works and avoid potential problems.
>
> Our goal is to provide a quality product using a model that puts
> new
> functionality in the hands of users more quickly and at a lower
> expense to
> the user than the commonly used methods. Although it's a
> significantly
> different model from what most consumers are used to, the vast
> majority of
> our users seem to agree that it's ultimately a beneficial model for
> them.
> Hopefully, this explanation will shed more light on our philosophy
> and
> you'll agree that it works in the consumer's favor.
>
> Thanks, Rob
>
>
> At 07:22 AM 1/20/2004 -0800, you wrote:
> >My license expired in December. I was trying to renew it the other
> >day, and enev though I didn't complete the procedure, the
> impression
> >I got from the data on the page, was that my license would be
> renewed
> >starting on the *expiration date*, instead of the renewal date. If
> >true, this means that if I renew it only on November, I'll have
> >exactly one month to use it. Is this right?
> >
> >Abilio
>
>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650)
> 588-8252
> Lone Wolf Development
>
www.wolflair.com
>
>
>
>
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