Comments on: Why clients want software developed cheap.

By: sameer

sameer — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:02:49 +0000

Good point Ram, but you misinterpreted my point. I was talking about the software that ‘came along with an assembled PC’. Leave aside the IT literate crowd; ask any person from the general population if they have any idea of the cost of the pirated software they are using (take Microsoft Office or Photoshop for e.g).

Regarding the first point, even if the prices of the software came down drastically many people will still want to use pirated software because its FREE (pirated).

Take the case of pirated books floating on the roads here (pune). They are selling pirated paperbacks for $2-$5, which originally cost only around $10-$20. But many people still prefer buying pirated copies because they don’t see ‘anything wrong’ in that and it also saves them a few bucks.

Unless we try to change the mindset of the general public we the developers will be at a loss in the end.

By: Ram

Ram — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:15:32 +0000

Do you really think people today are dumb enough not to know that they use pirated software on their machines in India? IMHO there are a other important reasons why they knowingly do so (not justifying it):

1. Software, like foreign edition books are still sold at Western rates (which is unaffordable to most people here). How did the software companies solve this issue in China? Give massive discounts (80% – 90%) to switch behavior. The Price-Volume curve of traditional economics do not seem to work because of near-monopolistic situation in, say, Windows. Its not as-if there is someone working on crafting each copy of Windows in costly California for me to be paying those $$$. Gods sake, its copied in Gurgaon. Why not charge me a reasonable fee? They fix price for 1 million copies and try to sell 100 million at the same (and then complain when people copy).

2. The kind of quality you get in the software you buy (and the licencing terms used – “you don’t own this stuff, only a licence to use it, which we can change any way we want and we are not liable for anything which blows up”) is not prevalent in almost any other kind of industry. Granted, software is hard to do. So is building a Mercedes (have you tried it?). Does that mean its okay for the car to mysteriously sieze up on the highway in unpredictable ways (and throw up a General Failure Error screen?). They would be sued out of existence and that is why it doesn’t happen.

By now its almost too late to convince people to buy because piracy has become a habit and ‘bad’ habits are hard to change.

Make it reliable. Make it useful. Make it cheap. Why would i not buy it?

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:26:10 +0000

The analogy of a music system actually is more apt than you think. You still have to have an input (software) or all you hear is amplified noise. People who would never steal gasoline to make thier automobile run will steal software to make the computer run. Plus, it needs a “brand name” – clients want “Adobe Photoshop” or “MS Office” rather than “image manipulation” or “business suite” software, even when those others are free to use, have equivalent functionality and open well-supported file formats.

By: Kiran

Kiran — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:00:06 +0000

U know wht most of the ppl buying assesmbled pcs don’t even know that a software comes for a price and that you have to actually pay to get a key or serial number. The hardware firm selling assembled pcs installs all pirated stuff required by the client on the machine before delivery.

By: Rob W

Rob W — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:06 +0000

The client in question (and a lot of people…) also probably doesn’t understand the huge difference between mass-marketed software (developed once but sold to thousands or millions of customers) and bespoke development… where you *can’t* resell his e-commerce site to someone else, so he has to pay for all of the work himself.