Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig5!wayneck
From: wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: No more Cinemaware stuff for Amiga !!!????
Message-ID: <4672@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Date: 14 Aug 89 17:57:08 GMT
References: <9180.AA9180@heimat> <1989Jul30.210112.10525@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <951@corpane.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 49

>>   5) Pirates kill a large amount of impulse buying, which can
>>      easily amount to 80% of your sells.  I know this because
>>      less than 20% of the sells every bother to send in registration
>>      cards. 
> 
>In other words "impulse buying" == "suckers who buy anything in a pretty
>package", if only 20% ever bother registering, then that is a good sign that
>the program is not worth the cost, and the maker better get on the ball and
>come out with a good program or face the facts of lowered sales as word of
>mouth travels about the crappy program.
> 

This is simply not true.  Many people buy good useful programs and
use then only once or twice then self them.  Of coarse it is much 
more true for games and real productive software but it still seems
to be the norm.  Also it seems that many people don't even bother to
register there hardware let alone their software.  According to a 
Commodore rep out here only 2000 Amigas were registered the second
quarter this year in North America.  I sure hope the Amiga sells are
better than this. 

Anyway, my point is that impulse buying in not really bad.  Many 
great products are sold this way.  How many people buy a paint program
like Deluxe Paint to only use it a few times, or a program like SA3D
to only raytrace a few pictures.  Are these bad products, no!  However,
I'm willing to bet that impulse buying plays a big part in many of
their sales.  

The problem is that if pirated copies of the program abound, then
these light users who are still valid sales sometimes use the programs
and never pay for it because they reason, well I don't use it that
much so why buy it.  I have inside information on the sales of 9
different Amiga programs.  From where I stand it looks like copy-
protecting my programs doubles my sales!  So what choice do I have?

Maybe I shouldn't have used the term "impulse buying" since it seems
to be to mis-understood.  Insteat let coin the term "light sales", that
is sales to casual or one-time users.  As a programmer, I still want
to be paid for these light sales!  Maybe I'd feel different if the
Amiga market was much bigger, but I doult it.

I hope this clears the air some.

                         Wayne Knapp

P.S. When you are getting as high as 20% registering on a programs that
costs only around a $100, it is a sign that you have a great program!
I seen super programs that don't do nearly as well.  (Stuff that I
worked on at Montana State Univ. a few years ago).