I have been a FW user for about 3 years, and during that time, I have wondered about the financial model.
I can’t remember how much FW was to upgrade each version, but it wasn’t much. And, users could go on for years without paying any more cash. Why didn’t Softpress adopt a more aggressive approach? (Aggressive meant in the nicest possible way!)
The standard approach of many software companies is to charge an (almost) annual ‘upgrade’ fee for software that is not much different, e.g. Parallels.
Now, I don’t mind paying £30-£40 a year to keep companies afloat if I feel their software is useful to me, and that they are doing a good job of maintaining the software in terms of updates and customer support.
As Walter has alluded to in a post above, I also have never understood the Actions principle which as far as I can see was the cornerstone of the FW community. Most seem to have been free, or a fairly minimal cost. Why? Again, I’m sure users would be happy to pay more for something that would prove to be useful.
I know that users like me don’t have any idea about the finances of Softpress, or things that have gone on behind closed doors, but why did Softpress not pick up on the whole Action thing? Develop their own chargeable products? I guess it was largely because of the situation described above, i.e. so many free Actions readily available.
No point in going, I guess, but I am very sad about FW and Softpress. Is there no chance that someone - with larger resources than Softpress - will pick up FW and improve the marketing and development?
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