Ohhh goody, PDA software price wars!

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent $375 for
a copy.
--
Gary Boggs
3650 Airport Dr.
Hood River, Oregon, USA
97031-9613
"tango4" wrote in message
...
Damn and I just paid out for a copy!

Now I guess it'll be a 'feature fight'.

How about all you software and hardware vendors get together and agree on an
interoperability standard so that us poor pilots can build systems with
fully interchangeable components - Loggers - varios - PDA's etc ( that means
less of the proprietary interface stuff) It could only be a good thing for
gliding. Especially with the last little scare about the some equipment no
longer being supported by the manufacturers/ the IGC. A common
interoperability standard would at least ensure the life of systems.

Ian

Gary Boggs wrote:

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent $375 for
a copy.
Question is - was/is it worth the $375 - if so be happy. If it is not, why did
you buy it?

Good luck to the guys who are getting it cheap, but remember that you eventually
get what you pay for in software. It still costs time/money to develop this
stuff. YOu can discount to buy market share, or be chaeper because you live in a
low cost location, but there are limits. So if the price becomes too low to
support - especially in a fragmented market, people start leaving, or stop
developing...

Ahhhhh, another Microshaft drone

Free software works, like it or not!

:-)

I hear it's getting cooler down your way Bruce. Only 28 degrees or so. Soon
you'll have nothing but 4 knot ( 2 metre ) midwinter thermals whilst we are
into stonking 6 knot midsummer ones!

Ian

tango4 wrote:
Ahhhhh, another Microshaft drone

Free software works, like it or not!

:-)

I hear it's getting cooler down your way Bruce. Only 28 degrees or so. Soon
you'll have nothing but 4 knot ( 2 metre ) midwinter thermals whilst we are
into stonking 6 knot midsummer ones!

Ian



Hi Ian

Fortunately not a major client or fan of Micro$oft Corp.
Most of my systems run open source, and we even publish our extensions back.
Which sort of proves that people can have software for nothing, just without
warranty.

My point was merely that if you are buying something, remember that it has to
make commercial sense, or you may have a Betamax in your glider... It doesn't
matter if the product is good/competitive/desirable. If it was a commercial
venture and does not make commercial sense it will die. Now I DO see the merit
in making an opensource offering. But I doubt there are enough people with the
knowledge and time available to do that. Possibly better to support the Pauls
and Erazems of the world, their products are good, and surely worth paying for.

As for the flying, I spent a three day weekend driving my family to and from my
partner's son's wedding out Kimberly way, and admiring the perfect cloud streets
from the car. Took the opportunity to identify suitable fields for when I start
doing some serious XC out that way...

Ah Well, there is always next weekend. The lack of rain has left us with a very
dry countryside, I think we can count on lots of thermals this winter.

(Written on the Mozilla "Thunderbird" mail client - not getting affected by 98%
of the viruses is sooo nice.)

Bruce Greeff wrote:
Gary Boggs wrote:

Yeh, I'm sure sorry to hear about this new price too. I just spent
$375 for
a copy.

Question is - was/is it worth the $375 - if so be happy. If it is not,
why did you buy it?

Gary should be happy, as you say. Free updates for a whole year now,
instead of only 6 months.


Good luck to the guys who are getting it cheap, but remember that you
eventually get what you pay for in software.

If this were really true, it would be easy to buy good softwa just
pick the most expensive! But, I sit here using Netscape 7.1, a free
browser, email client, and web page composer that is at least the equal
to IE 6 and Outlook Express, and without so many security issues.
Mozilla 1.6 is even better, and just as free. And look at how many
corporations use Linux.

It still costs time/money
to develop this stuff. YOu can discount to buy market share, or be
chaeper because you live in a low cost location, but there are limits.

Aye, and that's the rub: just where are those limits? We won't know
until people stretch them a little, will we?

So if the price becomes too low to support - especially in a fragmented
market, people start leaving, or stop developing...

True in general, but in this _particular_ case, can we say $250US is too
low? With Strepla's and CU's entry into the market, I suggest they think
not. And after CU's success with their flight display software, I
suspect it isn't.
--
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change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA