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Taking the sting out of new pricing


Guest K. T. Walrus

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Posted

I'd like to suggest that you run a "Great Perpetual License" blowout sale since these licenses are soon to be extinct. Say, "Perpetual Licenses for $99!" or something like that.

Just a suggestion... This would take the sting out of the new license price increases. I found out yesterday that you no longer offer discounted licenses for those that hold 2 or more licenses. I'm going to be in need of another license in 6 months and I had figured it would cost me $40/year like my old yearly license did. That apparently is no longer the case. You need to hold 5 or more licenses to get any kind of discount (yikes!). Now, it looks like I need to pony up $149 (if I wait until I actually need the license) and will be on the hook for $50 more each year or I lose the ability to upgrade that copy of IPB.

This is a bit of a shock!

So, I'm asking that you give us a shot at getting a discounted Perpetual License before they go away. I do not require support, but I do require upgrades (mostly to make sure the board software stays as secure as possible against attack - like the new security features of 2.2 do). This would cause me to buy a Perpetual License even though it is in advance for a project that may or may not ever get off the ground so you would take in some added cash now.

I would buy a Yearly license now for the license I need in 6 months (at $69) as this will convert to a $50/year license, but as I found out yesterday, there is no guarantee that you won't raise the annual fee for getting upgrades again to whatever you think you can get out of me. At least with a Perpetual license, I would have upgrades without facing some increased cost down the road.

Anyway, I'm still a bit shell shocked over the price increase announcement and the Perpetual license option going away.

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Posted

Certainly, any time you offer a sale on a product such as IPB, you will get lots of people that weren't planning on buying making an impulse buy.

Frankly, the announcement of the price increases/elimination of Perpetual licenses, also has the same effect. People like you and me that weren't going to purchase anytime soon are motivated to spend money now to take advantage of the old prices before they go extinct.

I upgraded my Yearly license yesterday to a Perpetual license just because of this move by IPS. I didn't want to be held hostage for future years in getting the right to upgrade my copy (as I said, the pricing change yesterday made me realize that IPS could raise the fees on upgrades at any time for the Standard licenses like they just did by converting Yearly to Standard without a choice to remain the same).

Anyway, even though I think that if IPS held a sale on Perpetual licenses, they would take in more overall money than if they didn't, the motivation for a sale should be to take the sting out of the future price increases. As it is, they have just told us that pricing is overall going up and that our options are to buy off the existing price list "for a limited time". A sale would feel much better and in the long run, IPS would get their price increase.

Posted

It annoys me most that they're getting rid of the 2 or more license discount, that was rather useful. I agree, a sale is a good idea. Personally I this kind of an increase is a bit dramatic, the current pricing scheme seems fair to me and works well for me and the people I know who are also using IPB.

Posted

It annoys me most that they're getting rid of the 2 or more license discount, that was rather useful. I agree, a sale is a good idea. Personally I this kind of an increase is a bit dramatic, the current pricing scheme seems fair to me and works well for me and the people I know who are also using IPB.



I have a strange feeling that the reason they upped the amount for getting the discount, is that people were abusing it. Buying a licence for $40 and selling for slightly more.
Posted

It's a shame if people have been doing that, I found it was a very helpful thing to have; it was one less thing to worry about anyway, not having to fork out $70 but only $40.

I had no idea IPS would do something like this, as I had planned to purchase another license when I can afford one (most probably Feb. time) but the price increase is phenominal. To be honest it's the kind of thing that prices people running hobby board out of the market.

Posted

I have a strange feeling that the reason they upped the amount for getting the discount, is that people were abusing it. Buying a licence for $40 and selling for slightly more.



They could have easily taking care of that problem by just imposing a $29 transfer fee for transfering a discounted license to a third party. Full price licenses could be transferred for free. Problem solved.
Posted

By the way, for people who already ahve licenses, you shouldn't complain anyway.

Because:

1. The 6 month terms actually means you probably only need to pay $25 per year to get the important upgrades, maybe the whole $50 some years, just depending how often releases come out.
2. That is cheaper than $70
3. You can still buy perpetuals right now.


So long story short, nobody is losing a thing unless they pay after the deadline THEN it is more expensive.

Posted
Invision Power Board Perpetual License
This will give you a perpetual license to use Invision Power Board for one installation and access to all future versions. One year of support and related services is included. After one year an optional $30 renewal for support and related services is available.

I thought with the Perpetual license...all future upgrades are free. It's the support that you need to renew for. At least that's how I thought it read....Am I wrong in my understanding??? Unless one installation is for whatever version they are on now...and then when an upgrade comes out...does that count as another installation and that's how you're caught in the loophole? Ack....I am confused! Yeah, I know this is why they're changing the names and pricing because of the confusion.
Posted

1. The 6 month terms actually means you probably only need to pay $25 per year to get the important upgrades, maybe the whole $50 some years, just depending how often releases come out.



Is this true? There was no statement in the announcement that said that if you let the 6 months support/upgrade period lapse that you could renew it at any time later and not have to pay the missed time periods.

I've owned lots of software that was sold with a perpetual license fee with annual maintenance fee and any time the maintenance fee was allowed to lapse, you needed to catch up on the missing fee amounts in order to reinstate maintenance.

If IPS wanted it to work like you say, they would just have an added upgrade fee option on any release (say, upgrade to 2.2 for $29). Otherwise, everyone would just wait until they needed support or to do an upgrade. Why would anyone prepay?
Posted
I

I thought with the Perpetual license...all future upgrades are free. It's the support that you need to renew for. At least that's how I thought it read....Am I wrong in my understanding??? Unless one installation is for whatever version they are on now...and then when an upgrade comes out...does that count as another installation and that's how you're caught in the loophole? Ack....I am confused! Yeah, I know this is why they're changing the names and pricing because of the confusion.



You are correct about Perpetual licenses, but IPS will no longer offer this licensing choice when 2.2 comes out. So, you are covered now for future upgrades, but if you need to purchase another license after the new pricing policy goes into place, you no longer get upgrades for free. You must pay a fee every 6 months to keep that option even if you don't need any support.

Basically, they have eliminated Perpetual licenses and raised the price (significantly!) of a Yearly license and slightly lowered the renewal fees that you would have paid under the old Yearly license fee. They want to get more money up front while still retaining the ability to generate ongoing revenue from renewals.

It's a price increase. It happens when the popularity of a product wanes so that they need more revenue per user than when it was growing. Not sure if this is the motivation here (I, for one, think the main competition is kicking butt), but it is usually the case.
Posted

I just assumed you could always renew it, even if you skipped one. I am pretty sure you can. They surely would not make you pay hundreds for a new license.



Unless they state you can skip the maintenance fee and pick it back up at a later time without paying the back fees, I think you might be surprised in a few years when you go to upgrade your old license with expired support to 3.0.
Posted

I wouldn't hold your breath witht e license blowout.



I have been selling software and coming up with licensing terms for well over 20 years and a sale at this time would be the best move for IPS. Whether they decide to do it or not is another question...
Posted

Okay. I went ahead and bought another Perpetual license today. I guess IPS got what they wanted from me. Made me buy a high cost license that I won't need for a while since I can't take the risk that they will change the Annual licenses again to increase the cost.

Well. That certainly was $300 I hadn't expected to fork over this week (upgrade a Yearly to Perpetual and purchase a new Perpetual). Still would have taken the sting out a bit if they had offered a discount on the Perpetual. I should have bought these back when they were $140...

Oh! I hope they take all our money and hire more programmers to work on IPB. The feature upgrades have been fairly slow over the past 2 years since I bought the first 2.0 version.

Posted

Okay. I went ahead and bought another Perpetual license today. I guess IPS got what they wanted from me. Made me buy a high cost license that I won't need for a while since I can't take the risk that they will change the Annual licenses again to increase the cost.



Well. That certainly was $300 I hadn't expected to fork over this week (upgrade a Yearly to Perpetual and purchase a new Perpetual). Still would have taken the sting out a bit if they had offered a discount on the Perpetual. I should have bought these back when they were $140...



Oh believe me, sales are few and far between. I was one of the rare few who got Lifetime licenses just before they vanished off the face of the earth. There was no sale there either (though ironically, my Lifetime was upgraded from a discounted Yearly - I'm feeling so lucky I made that call then!)
Posted

I don't get why holding a sale for the perpetual license would benefit Invision. They make a lot more profit from someone who pays $150 + $50/yr for the new standard license than from someone who pays $185 for a perpetual license, so why would they try to get more people to buy it?
There's a good reason they're phasing it out...

Posted

What a confusing thread - it's like going into your local supermarket and suggesting they hold a sale whereby you get everything for half price, sounds great, but the chances of them doing it is about 0%

Posted

Well for myself I am NOT buying it. I already have purchased 2 licenses when I got 2.1.4 and it was promised then that ALL future updates would be free, but support would run out after one year.

Invision needs to keep their promises, simple as that. If I decide to buy another license, then that should simply be like buying the software all anew.

As to reselling a license... rather than deter present and potential customers, they can simply eliminate it. I don't buy a sandwich, eat part of it and sell the rest... Or if they do allow reselling of it, then simply add a re-licensing fee.

Besides, I keep with IPB in hopes that Dean will turn IPB into what it should have been before he had to make all the mods that brings it almost up to the levels of much cheaper competition (at todays prices and not the new "send all the IPB corporation on world cruise vacations").

Invision will have to recognize that todays economy is getting worse! Everyone must tighten their belts and make do with less income. I personally took a $3 an hour pay cut recently. IPB should be LOWERING their prices to stay in competition, not raising them.

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Posted

Well for myself I am NOT buying it. I already have purchased 2 licenses when I got 2.1.4 and it was promised then that ALL future updates would be free, but support would run out after one year.



Invision needs to keep their promises, simple as that. If I decide to buy another license, then that should simply be like buying the software all anew.



As to reselling a license... rather than deter present and potential customers, they can simply eliminate it. I don't buy a sandwich, eat part of it and sell the rest... Or if they do allow reselling of it, then simply add a re-licensing fee.



Besides, I keep with IPB in hopes that Dean will turn IPB into what it should have been before he had to make all the mods that brings it almost up to the levels of much cheaper competition (at todays prices and not the new "send all the IPB corporation on world cruise vacations").



Not sure what you are referring to. As have been repeated quite a bit - if you already have a license your terms are not changing.
Posted

Not sure what you are referring to. As have been repeated quite a bit - if you already have a license your terms are not changing.



All the word I am getting in PM's and emails right now even, from all the sites I recommended IPB to, is that they hear they need to buy a perpetual license, as they won't be allowed to get upgrades... All that I have read in the forums here, many many customers also understand this to be the new standard.



(hehe.. can't find the quote icon in this version..thank goodness regular good old faithful manual bbcode works ;) )

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