Donny, I do seem to have an amazing ability to piss you off. OTOH, in
our private emails we seem to get a long. I know it is possible for
you to read what I write with out getting upset. Please understand
that no matter how you interpret what I write, it is not, and never
will be, intended to demean you in any way.
I would have accepted a reasoned response from Sam, but your response
seems almost deliberately obtuse. You picked a pricing model designed
to invalidate any licensing deal that is invoked each time you sell a
copy,
How so? I picked a fixed price model which is what is out there. Do
you object to my choice of prices?
and you seem to deliberately ignore the fact that if someone
only sells 37 copies, not only can they not justify their licensing
costs,
That was part of the point. The majority of people selling these apps
are not selling large numbers of them.
Look, multiply the numbers by 10 or even 100 and you still get very
small numbers going to Sam.
but apparently now we’re supposed to believe that people are
less willing to pay their bill the less it is.
It’s quite true actually. Especially when it isn’t a bill. Pay per
copy license systems work on the honor system. They have to. Unless
the amounts are known to be in the 10s of thousands of dollars the
licensor can not afford to audit the licensee. Without audits, there
is no way to enforce a license deal. That means that the licensor must
simply trust the licensee to send the money that is owed.
When it is a bill things are a little different. Ever worked with
billing? Many people simply ignore bills for less than the cost of a
stamp. Many people ignore bills for amounts smaller than say $10 or
$20. Many businesses know the exact cost of processing a bill, and it
is much more than just the cost of the stamp, and they will not send a
bill for an amount less than the cost of processing it plus a
reasonable profit.
(Yeah, that is changing as people adopt online billing and bill payment.)
The tax deduction is also a totally bunk argument.
It wasn’t an argument, it was an observation. At the end of the year
you might find your self feeling very happy to get a small tax
deduction from stuff you bought for your project. I always am. Though
I have to admit that since the Reagan tax incentives for small
business were repealed it is often pointless to even keep track of
small purchases.
During the initial start up phase of a business or a project it is
easy to justify spending small amounts of money on things like
licensing fees. Hey, you wanna build a shelf you gotta buy lumber,
right? Ok, so what happens at the turn of the quarter when you need to
pay Sam. In a big business or even a small business your accountant
will remind you of certain quarterly obligations. Did you tell your
accountant to handle your license fee payments? Oh, your "accountant"
is Quickbooks… And your small business is just you and maybe one
other guy. Do you even notice when the quarter turns? Not to mention
you don’t even have to sign a contract to get SDL so Sam doesn’t even
have a good way to find out you are using it.
The state of Texas has a rather large organization designed to remind
businesses of their quarterly obligation to pay sales taxes.
Businesses commonly lie cheat and literally steal to keep from paying
taxes. What is going to remind Sam’s customers of their obligation to
pay him? Especially if he doesn’t know who they are?
Oh well. If you don’t like any of that just consider that it is easier
to get money up front than to collect it before it is due.
Bob PendletonOn Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Donny Viszneki <donny.viszneki at gmail.com> wrote:
departs the discussion
On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Bob Pendleton <@Bob_Pendleton> wrote:
On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 4:32 PM, Donny Viszneki <donny.viszneki at gmail.com> wrote:
Some of my friends who have developed for the iphone didn’t even come
close to recouping their development costs on their first few apps. Is
there any reason not to license SDL to the end-user instead, and
charge the developer per copy?
Yeah, a one time charge is easy to collect and easy to verify. The
time and expense of logging all purchases and sending in quarterly, or
even, yearly license fees are a royal pain in the ass for the
developer and pretty much ensure that Sam will never see most of the
money he is due.
Let’s say I write an iPhone application using SDL and sell 37 copies
over the following year. For that I own Sam, say 0.037 USD. Yeah, 3.7
cents… hey, 0.1 cent per sale is reasonable for an app that sells
for $1 per copy… Ok, let’s say Sam charges 1 cent per copy so we owe
him a whole 37 cents, the results are the same. At the end of the year
I look at that and say, screw “Sam, It isn’t enough for me to feel
guilty about. If he wants he can sue me!”.
OTOH, if I send Sam $100 when the app is accepted at the app store Sam
gets his money and at the end of the year I don’t feel guilty. Not to
mention that I get to deduct the $100 as a business expense! Hey, I’m
not out much for SDL. Sam got paid. I got a tax deduction. What is
$100 bucks compared to the actual cost of equipment and time needed to
develop an iPhone app? Nothing.
Stick with one time fees. People will pay those.
Bob Pendleton
On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 12:43 AM, Sam Lantinga wrote:
So currently the commercial license for SDL 1.3 on iPhone is $300 per
product, but after looking at the market and the people looking to
develop on iPhone, I’m seriously considering dropping the cost to $100
per product with a discount for multiple products.
Thoughts?
See ya!
? ? ? ?-Sam Lantinga, Founder and President, Galaxy Gameworks LLC
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