Roger Thomasson

The following message has been posted on behalf of M J via the Swift To-Do List 7 promotion page.

"Roger....

1) Why did you delete the comments instead of just moving them to the forum. Now they are gone. To some it might look like you are censoring negative comments.

2) If what I remembered, since the comments were deleted, the comments were specific to this vendors and not a general discussion. Some people who have purchased this software are concerned with their upgrade policy. Maybe other are, too.

3) I'm one of those people. My free lifetime upgrades has been canceled by the vendors and I only get a free upgrade to version 7 Standard. After that I have to pay for my "free lifetime upgrades". Some people might look at the character of the developers in addition to the product. 

Thanks"

Roger Thomasson

Posted on behalf of Frank Stephens:

"While I like BDJ, I'm getting tired of the marketing tactics of some of the vendors.  I already had version 6, but last time Dextronet recommended taking advantage of the BDJ deal because of the free upgrade to version 7.  Now, they want me to purchase it all over again to get the Professional version.  The net result will be no or minimal discount.  This happens all the time on BDJ, you buy something based on vendor promises and then it's re-offered with a better but non-upgradeable deal, so if you keep buying you're not getting a discount." 

Roger Thomasson Posted on behalf of Mitch Kite:

Jiri Novotny

Hi all,

Some quick facts, and more detailed explanation below.

1. Version 7 comes in two editions: Standard and Professional

2. If you have purchased version 6 in February 2010 or later, you can get free upgrade to v7 Standard

3. Upgrade to v7 Professional is paid for *everyone*. It is a new product!

4. All minor updates are free (eg. if you buy v7, you will get all 7.xx updates for free)

5. You do not have to upgrade. You can just use the old version if you choose so.

6. All upgrades are deeply discounted for previous customers

7. You are getting a *great* deal here at BDJ. It is always cheaper than purchasing directly from us. BDJ also takes their cut, so we are not getting that much money from these promotions.

I will try to do my best to explain our upgrade policy to you. Let me be completely honest with you.

1) Q: Why is upgrade to version 7 paid?

Old Swift To-Do List (STDL) has been developed only by me, but the new version 7 has been developed by 4 developers including me (2 full time, 2 part-time) and the development has taken us over a year. The development has been very expensive and there is no way we could afford it with free major upgrades.

This is not a common upgrade - STDL 7 is completely rewritten from scratch. It's like a new program - because it is, in fact, a new program.

To-do list software market is very competitive and saturated. Constantly getting new users is much harder (and expensive) than charging our current users for major upgrades.

This will allow us to add significant new and useful features. You can expect lots of really big improvements in the 7.xx line in near future. You will be getting these for free.

We had just three options:

a) Charge for a major upgrade

b) Do not improve STDL much, do only small updates and keep major upgrades free (no major upgrades would be probably coming anyway, because we wouldn't be able to afford their development)

b) Abandon STDL and create a completely new product

I believe that option a) is the best for everyone in the long run, because you will be able to get the best possible product. If you do not want the best possible product, then STDL is probably not for you. 

2) Q: Why am I getting free upgrade just to Standard and not Professional when I purchased v6 recently?

Swift To-Do List Professional is a *new* product, directed mainly at business users. Is costs twice as much as the Standard edition. The 100+ new features are included BOTH in Standard and Professional edition - the Professional edition just has some *extra* features, like task assigning and emailing, and more fields.

You do NOT need to upgrade to v7 Professional. If you use Swift To-Do List for work/business, then investing in this upgrade will quickly pay you off. If you think it won't pay off, then don't buy it - if you are home user, then the Standard edition is for you.

We are trying really *hard* to give you a *great* value here. There is so many new features that we could include only 1/5 of the new features and still be able to sell the upgrade!

I've been working 14-15 hours a day(!) for over a year on this. It saddens me that our efforts are not appreciated, but this post will hopefully help you to understand our situation and strategic decisions. I'm sorry for any confusion.

Best of luck to you.

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If you have any further questions, I recommend you to email us directly so we can give you a faster response.

Nico Westerdale Jiri,

Thanks for the clarifications to this. Don't feel disheartened by the comments above the vast majority appreciate your product and the  deals that you run with us.

To everyone else it's important to remember that BDJ in the main part supports small independent software vendors with very modest marketing and advertising budgets. As far as I know we've never had a vendor trying to somehow game the system by offering a deal here. Hopefully Jiri's thoughtful post will give you a little insight into the hard-fought life of being a software developer, it certainly makes interesting reading for me.