Steven;
A company allowing its software to be pirated is simply a marketing ploy to
try to gain market share. Especially in the CAD market. Their are more
pirated versions of autocad out there than legitimate. The reason they do
this is so workers who have a desire to learn a CAD program can get it from a
friend and attempt to learn it on their own (Which is usually futile without
proper training). When it comes time to get a job with these new found
skills, when asked what software do you know of course the answer is Autocad.
Cadkey also uses this ploy to try to gain market share against their arch
rival Autodesk. Solidworks uses this same ploy to try and gain market share
against their arch rival PTC (ProE). ProE already has more than 50% of the
solid marketing market so they have no need to practice this. The way all
these companies keep people buying is they are continually developing their
product with new features. Cad software is continuously improving and the
software companies make sure that the older versions are not compatable with
the newer versions. The software is only technologically valid for about a
year if people want to use it commercially. This way once they do learn it
and they want to start making money with it they are forced to buy the most
current version in order to keep up with the legitimate user community. And
they must pay support (typically 13% annually) once they do start using it.
My opinion as an expert in the CAD industry is that this tactic has
moslty backfired for all who have tried it. It has a tendency to keep users
from buying legitimate versions when the time comes (no one wants to spend
money if they don't have to) legality issues aside. This in turn limits the
amount of income coming in to the software developer. If you check the
financial condition of most Cad companies you will find the ones that don't
allow piracy are very healthy financially (ProE has a billion dollars in the
bank) Catia is used to design nearly all the cars and airplanes on the
planet. Which usually assures plenty of money available for R&D and
continuous enhancement to their product.
In the overall scheme of things in running a successful business using
high technology software the initial cost of the software is pretty small
compared to the cost of not having it. Just study the history of the CAD/CAM
industry and all the companies who have came and gone. The only question I
have when looking at software is, can it do the job better than anything
else. If it can then the cost doesn't matter because if you don't get it you
won't be in business very long anyway because your competitors will have it.
regards
Bob Morton
Fusion Engineering
In a message dated 11/22/99 2:32:04 AM Central Standard Time,
themissinglink@eznetinc.net writes:
<< I recently started thinking about the (HASP?)software key that is required
for
use with FormZ. As I researched this technology on the web I started to
wonder how come more software developers, including Microsoft, don't require
these ingenius little anti-piracy devices.
Are the software developers working on something else or do you think these
will someday become part of the consumer software market? You always hear
that entire countries, such as China, operate on pirated Microsoft software
and that being a reason for their Y2K woes. You would think Microsoft would
be very keen to capture the appropriate dollars for their product. Is this
just a strategy of getting the world addicted to Microsoft software by
allowing for free samples only to later protect the product with products
such
as these?
Thanks for any insight you have into this.
Steven Pollack >>
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