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Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

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Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#11

Post by derefr »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #9

People for whom $1,000 for a tool is a reasonable amount of money, sometimes even a bargain. People designing things will buy a CAD package which can cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $50,000. Complex solvers like antenna simulation or computational fluid dynamics can command big prices. FPGA design software. Simulators. The are lots of things $1,000 should get you when you pay that for software. It should get you a ph…

The question is not why there are any software products priced at more than $1000; it's why the centre of the pricing distribution for many types of software is exactly $1000. Why does a CAD program cost $1000 instead of $800, or $2000, or even $10000? (CAD workstations certainly can cost $10000, so I don't think that's a stupid question.)

If this is "freelancer-tier" pricing, and freelancers don't have to worry about a price-point beyond which they must fill out requisition forms, then software priced for them should just cost however much they're willing to pay (i.e. some percentage of how much money it makes them), which should vary with their revenue, rather than always ending up at a similar global price-point.

And if it's not "freelancer-tier" pricing; if it's something else—then what is it?

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#12

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #5
djsumdog wrote: post #2

ArcGIS is another one (although the OSS qgis alternative is picking up steam). Adobe now chargers a much more affordable per year subscription. Honestly I'd rather pay the $300 ~ $600 for a version that doesn't expire, but that's just me. To answer your question: mid-level enterprise customers that need a very niche product.

How close is qgis to parity with ArcGIS? And can qgis interpret openstreetmap data?

1. Pretty close in terms of functionality when it comes to rendering, computation. Not close when it comes to out of the box user friendliness (Arc comes packaged with everything and with QGIS you have to tap into a not-as-well-defined plugin ecosystem that is thousands strong to get the functionality). This is either a pro or a con depending on how you look at it. Also ArcGIS out of the box cartography is completely unrivaled compared to QGIS. Similar results can be achieved to ArcGIS when exporting QGIS data to something specializing in vector graphics such as Adobe Illustrator, which is the workflow a lot of people using QGIS do (render vectors/map in QGIS and then take it out to other program).

2. QGIS is actually “better” at interpreting OSM than Arc, simply because people who work on free software like free data and there are many more plugins and tutorials that are based around OSM for QGIS. So it’s not “better” in the sense you might be implying, more like it’s just a much more typical dataset for the QGIS community than Arc and you reap the side benefits of that.

As other poster noted as well, the commercial options for QGIS sat the moment are not very good. I think Desktop GIS is an area that is ripe for Gitlab-esque disruption.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#13

Post by onion2k »

CyberFonic wrote: post #3

In my experience government departments will buy $1000 + software packages when sold by slick salespersons, especially near the end of their annual budget cycle, when they chose to spend remaining funds so as to not have their budget cut. I have seen dozens of unopened boxes in many IT department offices.

I have seen dozens of unopened boxes in many IT department offices.

Most enterprise software is installed over a network and managed with a license manager. An unopened box is not a sign that the software hasn't been used.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#14

Post by khedoros1 »

derefr wrote: post #11
ChuckMcM wrote: post #9

People for whom $1,000 for a tool is a reasonable amount of money, sometimes even a bargain. People designing things will buy a CAD package which can cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $50,000. Complex solvers like antenna simulation or computational fluid dynamics can command big prices. FPGA design software. Simulators. The are lots of things $1,000 should get you when you pay that for software. It should get you a ph…

The question is not why there are any software products priced at more than $1000; it's why the centre of the pricing distribution for many types of software is exactly $1000. Why does a CAD program cost $1000 instead of $800, or $2000, or even $10000? (CAD workstations certainly can cost $10000, so I don't think that's a stupid question.) If this is "freelancer-tier" pricing, and freelancers don't have to worry abou…

> it's why the centre of the pricing distribution for many types of software is exactly $1000

The original question says "~$1000" in the title, and "about $1000" in the explanatory text.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#15

Post by xapata »

onion2k wrote: post #13
CyberFonic wrote: post #3

In my experience government departments will buy $1000 + software packages when sold by slick salespersons, especially near the end of their annual budget cycle, when they chose to spend remaining funds so as to not have their budget cut. I have seen dozens of unopened boxes in many IT department offices.

I have seen dozens of unopened boxes in many IT department offices. Most enterprise software is installed over a network and managed with a license manager. An unopened box is not a sign that the software hasn't been used.

Not in the old days.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#16

Post by jdietrich »

derefr wrote: post #11
ChuckMcM wrote: post #9

People for whom $1,000 for a tool is a reasonable amount of money, sometimes even a bargain. People designing things will buy a CAD package which can cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $50,000. Complex solvers like antenna simulation or computational fluid dynamics can command big prices. FPGA design software. Simulators. The are lots of things $1,000 should get you when you pay that for software. It should get you a ph…

The question is not why there are any software products priced at more than $1000; it's why the centre of the pricing distribution for many types of software is exactly $1000. Why does a CAD program cost $1000 instead of $800, or $2000, or even $10000? (CAD workstations certainly can cost $10000, so I don't think that's a stupid question.) If this is "freelancer-tier" pricing, and freelancers don't have to worry abou…

$1000 is the purchasing limit in most large enterprises - anything over $1000 needs specific authorization. Buying a product at $999 is completely frictionless, while buying a product for $1001 involves multiple meetings and reams of paperwork. In enterprise purchasing logic, $999 is indistinguishable from free and $1001 might as well be $50,000.

Clever software marketers have realized that a $999/mo SaaS product fits under that limit just as well as a $999 boxed product.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#17

Post by vmarquet »

jdietrich wrote: post #16
derefr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is not why there are any software products priced at more than $1000; it's why the centre of the pricing distribution for many types of software is exactly $1000. Why does a CAD program cost $1000 instead of $800, or $2000, or even $10000? (CAD workstations certainly can cost $10000, so I don't think that's a stupid question.) If this is "freelancer-tier" pricing, and freelancers don't have to worry abou…

$1000 is the purchasing limit in most large enterprises - anything over $1000 needs specific authorization. Buying a product at $999 is completely frictionless, while buying a product for $1001 involves multiple meetings and reams of paperwork. In enterprise purchasing logic, $999 is indistinguishable from free and $1001 might as well be $50,000. Clever software marketers have realized that a $999/mo SaaS product fit…

This. For more information, see this post https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterpris... by patio11.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#18

Post by joshvm »

It comes down to how much time you save using the software. If software A costs $100 but takes 20 hours to do the same thing that B (costing $1000) can do in 2, then it's a no brainer. It's a interesting price point, because for my work, $1000 is expensive, but reasonable if it's necessary software. $5k isn't an option unless it can provide serious value, and above that is pie in the sky. (Until they work for a company, most people don't value their labour).

Typically $1000 doesn't get you fantastic support, you might get a year of email/phone, but don't expect much.

A one off payment of $1000 is nothing compared to some SaaS's that advertise hundreds of dollars a month for premium tiers, or tens/hundreds of dollars per user per month.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#19

Post by giancarlostoro »

zxcmx wrote: post #4

People who use the software professionally to make money. There is a market segment between enthusiast and enterprise where people pay real money for software which supports their freelancing and consulting. Hex-rays and (and formerly photoshop) fit in this category. Similar things might be wireless site survey software, antenna/ EM modelling, CAD, all kinds of engineering software really. "Pro versions" of security…

This right here. This is why I bought all the JetBrains IDE's as a personal license, aside from my student graduation discount, all these IDE's allow me to be seriously productive at work. I do not regret buying JetBrains at all, had it been a thousand dollars I would of probably have thought twice, but the value it returns to me is worth it honestly. I'm definitely more productive with the JetBrains toolset.

Re: Ask HN: Who is the target audience for ~$1000 software?

#20

Post by giancarlostoro »

CyberFonic wrote: post #3

In my experience government departments will buy $1000 + software packages when sold by slick salespersons, especially near the end of their annual budget cycle, when they chose to spend remaining funds so as to not have their budget cut. I have seen dozens of unopened boxes in many IT department offices.

This happens in colleges too, although they were buying Raspberry Pi's and other cool things that students could use for classes, including an Oculut Rift. It sucks how accounting sort of forces you to buy crazy things to make sure they don't take funds away from you, but it's also kind of cool the kind of stuff you can get away with buying if you word it just right.
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