I can see for like version 11 vs. 10 or something like that, but it's pretty greedy to ask for money for every new bug fix or addition that Avid comes up with.

you would think that the insane cost of these suites would give the users a lifetime of updates...not the case at all

Just my thoughts

sorry if this offends anyone

I don't really know what to say here. I'd answered previously, but since I was told my answer was too political, I've now typed this jibberish.

And the client says

it's pretty greedy to ask for money for every new edit fix or creative addition that the editor comes up with.

autolux:

... it's pretty greedy to ask for money for every new bug fix or addition that Avid comes up with. 

you would think that the insane cost of these suites would give the users a lifetime of updates...not the case at all

...

Being that Avid has been losing money and laying off people for over a year now, I don't see how you come to your conclusion.

autolux:

it's pretty greedy to ask for money for every new bug fix or addition that Avid comes up with

To date, Avid has not charged for patch/"bug fix" releases.

For example, upgrading from v3 to anything up to (but not including) v3.5 was free.  That means 3.0.1, 3.1, 3.1.1 and so on.  Owners of v3.0 had to pay to upgrade to 3.5 and now that v4 is out, it is also a paid upgrade from any previous version.  I'm willing to bet that version 4.1 will be free for v4 owners.  

How can you honestly ask that question with a serious face?  All things (not just Avid software) cost money.  How come I have to pay for oil changes on my car?  I want to upgrade to the 17" alloy wheels, why does that cost more?  Seems pretty greedy to me.  

autolux:

you would think that the insane cost of these suites would give the users a lifetime of updates

By the same logic, Apple should offer all of their OS upgrades free for anyone who has ever purchased a Mac.  Do they do that?  No.  In fact, as a Tiger owner I now have to buy the completely worthless (to me) iLife' 09 "bundle" in order to upgrade to Snow Leopard - oh and it costs more than upgrading straight from Leopard.  Nice.  And you can't get Leopard at all anymore from Apple.  Nicer. 

 I vote that this thread be removed. 

**EDIT:  I just realized this is in the DS forum, but either way - the main points of my post still apply**

At the end of the day everyone is trying to make a living so we charge $ for our work same goes for Avid who have wages to pay every month.

Kenton.VanNatten:

$2500 is not "insane".

It's "insanely" low for what you get IMO. In fact, if it wasn't so low, there probably wouldn't be any threads like this one.

I'm not sure where this idea that we should continue to profit off the backs of others while contributing little or nothing ourselves has crept into our social conscience. I think part of the problem is that intellectual property isn't regarded as highly as hard goods. Obviously nobody would walk into an auto showroom and say, "Gee, this car costs so much that I should get free cars for the rest of my life."

==Deleted== (once again, I was told my example was too political)

Back to the original question, Avid software and hardware is not an expendable product like toilet paper that people use up and repurchase every week. They're selling a professional tool to a mature market, meaning there are only so many people on the entire planet who want or need a $2500 editing solution. When that need is satisfied, one of the biggest sources of revenue left is servicing the existing customers who are continually demanding new features. Therefore we must pay for those advances in technology, if we want the new features. If you're content with what you've got, then don't buy the upgrades.

Wow, sorry. I get carried away with some of this stuff, but sheesh...

Chris

conleec:

If you're content with what you've got, then don't buy the upgrades.

...and if your software is plagued by crippling bugs, you should get these fixed without having to pay for it again. This much is common knowledge, except to bean counters and most marketing yahoos.

Just a couple of years ago, there was no way in hell Avid would have released bug fixes like 3.5.9 after having released version 4, and for this they deserve a lot of credit.

Some updates on the other hand, like version 4 (or FCP 7 for that matter) offer very limited benefits for the customer, and are falsely called MAJOR upgrades. We all know Avid are short on cash, and that's the main reason version 4 wasn't called 3.6.

DS version 10 is indeed a major upgrade, and we have nothing against paying for major improvements like those offered in this release. DS support is a lot different to MC / Symphony, so we don't expect to have to pay for v10 updates or bug fixes... 

Actually, I consider the ability to seemlessly play various framerates and frame sizes on the same timeline to be a pretty major improvement that I've been desiring for a long time. I've definitely found it worth my $395 upgrade cost already.

Chris

I think avid deserves a lot of credit for its current upgrade price policy. Looking at the extras that we get for under $500 with MC, it is very good value.

But there are version upgrades and there are bug fixes. How long any company needs to make bug fixes for a software product is the actual problem here. Microsoft still creates updates for XP. That makes sense as a large percentage of Microsoft windows users are still using XP. I don't think it would be bad if avid would also use such an approach.

However cheap upgrading will be, there will always be users that won't upgrade due to system requirements of new versions, slowness of new software on older hardware or simply as they believe that the version they use does the job they want it to do.

So theoretically if 90% of the avid users is using MC 3.5.x or later, I understand that no more updates for 3.1.3 will be made. But if that is only 20% then I think avid should reconsider. Now... I don't have any clues about the numbers here... so I can't say. But I do understand that some users find it unfair that, if avid brings out a new version every 6 months and avid seems only to makes updates for its current and previous version, after 1 year, avid does not make bug fixes for their software anymore and they need to update to have bugs fixed.