Jonathan Schwartz thinks Sun's free J2EE AppServer is a good thing:
So imagine you elect to move off Sun's app server, to move to IBM's WebSphere. To check to see if you've written to an instruction that isn't in the J2EE standard, you could have your development staff run our Application Verification Kit. The AVK tests to see if you've inadvertently defeated portability in your application. You'll soon realize there's nothing stopping you from moving off of Sun's app server to WebSphere - so you move the application over, and resume running your business. [...]James Robertson compares this to some experiences at ParcPlace selling Smalltalk into the enterprise:Imagine you come to your senses next quarter when IBM asks for a big license fee (did I mention Sun's app server is free on all platforms?); you run the AVK again to see if you're gotten hung up on any IBM "enhancements" that go beyond J2EE; and if the answer is no, you move back. Substitution is enabled.
One of the fascinating things about the early history of ParcPlace was pricing. Way back when, PPS priced ObjectWorks at well under $1000 USD. Sales were very slow. They moved prices up over $1000 - without really improving the product. Sales went up. With some classes of complex software, there's pretty much a "minimum price" - if you are below that, you are seen as either a toy or a marketing demo.I remember similar things from when I was at ActiveState. We had an enterprise product that wasn't moving very well at all. Once we increased the price 10x, sales started coming in. Go figure.
So is Sun enabling choice, or leaving money on the table? You decide. ;-)
Are often driven by the notion that "You get what you pay for." Therefore, if you paid nothing,....
Re:Enterprise buyers
ziggy on 2004-08-11T18:08:32
There's a grain of truth there, but only about that much.I used to work for a finance consulting firm that sold systems to trading desks on three continents. We charged an arm and a leg for these systems, so presumably they were worth a lot of money. (One product was pitched as a million dollar system, ~10 years ago when that was still a lot of money.)
On the one hand, we charged high prices because that's what the market would bear. But you'd think that the law of supply and demand would be in effect, rather than routinely inverted. Here's what I think was going on.
These shops were entrusting a part of their core business to us. It's in their best interest that (1) we stay in business years after the initial sale, and (2) we remain responsive to their needs as long as they use our software. So on the one hand, halving the price of the system should more than double our sales, but also more than doubles our workload. Therefore, it's worthwhile to pay more and (theoretically) reduce risk and keep your critical vendor responsive and solvent. This is why some of these systems are so expensive yet don't sell below some minimum price threshhold.
Those are my experiences. I don't know how well they extend to more commoditized software like Smalltalk development environments or J2EE app servers.
