RE: Rebates for V4.5 Purchases
A couple of quick points in reference to last message
1. We have been very clear and open about the rebate for purchasers of v4.5 when they upgrade to v5.
V5 was released late in the afternoon on July 19 and we posted a message on the message board at 7.50pm on July 19th indicating how to get the rebate.
2. Re pricing. A lot has been said on this topic, but it is worth considering that the total cost for a database application is the cost for the software AND for your time.
Also if one looks at the breadth and depth of features of v5 relative to v4.5 in comparison to the breadth and depth of features of v4.5 relative to v4, it quickly should become clear that it is akin to comparing a Saturn Rocket to a 4th of July Fire Cracker. The point being that the relative value of the current upgrade to v5 is very high when compared to the relative value of the upgrade from v4 to v4.5. You might want to take a look at
http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/a5v5/newfeatures.asp
http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/a5v5/overview.asp
One of the key design goals for v5 was productivity.
We are getting annecdotal feedback from beta testers (who are also very proficient with MS Access and VB) that, with v5, their development time is being cut dramatically (4-5 times quicker).
In real monetary terms, this means that with v5 a project that might take 20 hours could take 80 to hours in MS Access. So if you look at both pieces of the cost equation, v5 starts to look like a fair deal.
Another user made the point that this pricing is going to make it more difficult to reach out to brand new customers.
This is a good point that we thought long and hard about, however, it is worth noting that a database purchase decision (as we all know) is often a critical decision for a business and organization -- people want to make the right and smart choice.
Due to the fact that such a decision is such an important and complex decision, people often look at price as ONE of the factors in determing product quality.
A low price does NOT necessarily mean that it will be easier to penetrate into new customer sites.
I would like to mention that in the early days of Alpha, we used to send free copies of Alpha Three to IT folks in large companies. When we followed up with these folk after a few weeks, more often than not, they would say "I have been meaning to look at your software, but I am sorry, I have not gotten around to it yet".
We then switched to charging for these evaluation copies.
Guess what happened?
When we followed up with them after a few weeks, almost all of them had evaluated the software. You can obviously draw many conclusions from this, but it is clear that once the software was associated with a price, the perception of the software changed. The lessons that we took from this learning led us to initiate conventional direct mail campaigns promoting Alpha Four in the early part of the 90's. We mailed over 20 million!! direct mail pieces (costing about 60 cents per piece) and generated about 60 million dollars in a 5-6 year period.
We believe that conditions for aggresively and (hopefully intelligently) marketing v5 now are more favorable than they were then for the following reasons.
1. The market is substantially bigger now.
2. The competitive playing field is narrower now. We have two major competitors now -- Filemaker and MS Access. Back then we had to slug it out with dBase, Q and A, Dataease, DataFlex, Revelation, Paradox for DOS, FoxPro for DOS, Clarion, FilePro, PFS, Reflex, RapidFile and a bunch of others!
3. Back then (in the early to mid nineties) relative to the alternative products, Alpha Four offered very good ease of use, but did not have a full blown/powerful langauge. Now with v5 we have a product that has clear strenghts in the "ease of use" department, BUT also offers very high levels of power and flexibility because of a greatly enhanced xBasic and Action Scripting.
Not being able to offer a developer/user total confidence in the ultimate flexibility and extensibility offered by a development langauge, cost us sales on Alpha Four. With v5 this issue is off the table.
One final note. We are keeping Alpha Five v4.5 on the market for those folks who want a lower priced option.
Thanks for taking the time to wade through this.
We appreciate all of your support and best of luck to all of you.
Sincerely
Richard Rabins
A couple of quick points in reference to last message
1. We have been very clear and open about the rebate for purchasers of v4.5 when they upgrade to v5.
V5 was released late in the afternoon on July 19 and we posted a message on the message board at 7.50pm on July 19th indicating how to get the rebate.
2. Re pricing. A lot has been said on this topic, but it is worth considering that the total cost for a database application is the cost for the software AND for your time.
Also if one looks at the breadth and depth of features of v5 relative to v4.5 in comparison to the breadth and depth of features of v4.5 relative to v4, it quickly should become clear that it is akin to comparing a Saturn Rocket to a 4th of July Fire Cracker. The point being that the relative value of the current upgrade to v5 is very high when compared to the relative value of the upgrade from v4 to v4.5. You might want to take a look at
http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/a5v5/newfeatures.asp
http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/a5v5/overview.asp
One of the key design goals for v5 was productivity.
We are getting annecdotal feedback from beta testers (who are also very proficient with MS Access and VB) that, with v5, their development time is being cut dramatically (4-5 times quicker).
In real monetary terms, this means that with v5 a project that might take 20 hours could take 80 to hours in MS Access. So if you look at both pieces of the cost equation, v5 starts to look like a fair deal.
Another user made the point that this pricing is going to make it more difficult to reach out to brand new customers.
This is a good point that we thought long and hard about, however, it is worth noting that a database purchase decision (as we all know) is often a critical decision for a business and organization -- people want to make the right and smart choice.
Due to the fact that such a decision is such an important and complex decision, people often look at price as ONE of the factors in determing product quality.
A low price does NOT necessarily mean that it will be easier to penetrate into new customer sites.
I would like to mention that in the early days of Alpha, we used to send free copies of Alpha Three to IT folks in large companies. When we followed up with these folk after a few weeks, more often than not, they would say "I have been meaning to look at your software, but I am sorry, I have not gotten around to it yet".
We then switched to charging for these evaluation copies.
Guess what happened?
When we followed up with them after a few weeks, almost all of them had evaluated the software. You can obviously draw many conclusions from this, but it is clear that once the software was associated with a price, the perception of the software changed. The lessons that we took from this learning led us to initiate conventional direct mail campaigns promoting Alpha Four in the early part of the 90's. We mailed over 20 million!! direct mail pieces (costing about 60 cents per piece) and generated about 60 million dollars in a 5-6 year period.
We believe that conditions for aggresively and (hopefully intelligently) marketing v5 now are more favorable than they were then for the following reasons.
1. The market is substantially bigger now.
2. The competitive playing field is narrower now. We have two major competitors now -- Filemaker and MS Access. Back then we had to slug it out with dBase, Q and A, Dataease, DataFlex, Revelation, Paradox for DOS, FoxPro for DOS, Clarion, FilePro, PFS, Reflex, RapidFile and a bunch of others!
3. Back then (in the early to mid nineties) relative to the alternative products, Alpha Four offered very good ease of use, but did not have a full blown/powerful langauge. Now with v5 we have a product that has clear strenghts in the "ease of use" department, BUT also offers very high levels of power and flexibility because of a greatly enhanced xBasic and Action Scripting.
Not being able to offer a developer/user total confidence in the ultimate flexibility and extensibility offered by a development langauge, cost us sales on Alpha Four. With v5 this issue is off the table.
One final note. We are keeping Alpha Five v4.5 on the market for those folks who want a lower priced option.
Thanks for taking the time to wade through this.
We appreciate all of your support and best of luck to all of you.
Sincerely
Richard Rabins
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