Caleb K Editor's Note: This comment was moved from the PageFour comments board, where it originally appeared.

No offense meant, but what is the point of buying this software if the upgrades aren't free?

In order to entice more consumers, why don't you offer free lifetime upgrades with just one purchase of this software? What good would it be if I, a budding novelist, buys your software NOW only to find out that I have to fork up another $XX.XX LATER?

I'm just being pragmatic and sincere. I just don't want to have to regret buying a version that needed a major upgrade but realized much much later that I could have and should have waited?

Thanks for your understanding.

tom drake If someone offfered software with 70% discount and final price being as low as $11, and free upgrades for life on top of it, I'll get red flag alert and only one thing coming to mind: dead end - avoid.

To offer free upgrades for life usually ends up as a business failure (though there are exceptions), and who would pay for it in the end are the customers. Such software will either become abandoned, or the developer will release the new version under different name (and of course not as a free upgrade), that's how it usually ends.

ehab @tom drake

correct i agree. i had done such a mistake with one software long long ago not by bit discount offer but by an option at checkout. What happened was the next release was a major and after that nothing and the software was abandoned.

so this is a good advise for anyone considering the lifetime upgrades.

S B tom drake (and ehab and Mike) makes an important point.

As we know, the software business is complex, and the economics can be difficult.

For BDJ offerings, after cutting the sales price in half (or more), the publisher must still compensate both the eCommerce house (for financial processing and possibly fulfillment) and BDJ for its promotion. From the original price there isn't a lot left.

Though the marginal costs in selling software are claimed to be zero, each new customer has records that must kept, and may require both customer service and product support. There's a web site with increasing traffic and expectations that must be maintained. There may be a product forum to maintain. Also, having more customers puts more pressure on product development (and even product evolution).

The software publisher needs continuing income, at least to support the opportunity costs of the product. This can possibly be done through increasing penetration into a broad market niche, product add-ons, new products, charged-for services, etc.

For some, a part of the product's development and support costs may be factored into the technical and marketing costs in support of other parts of their enterprise--this works if the nexus is realistic and the whole enterprise is successful.

I'm not as grim as tom drake about Lifetime Upgrades, but I do absolutely agree with his important perspective.

Roger and Nico, you are the experts: comments on Lifetime upgrades, Software businesses, etc.?

Mike B I am a fan of lifetime upgrades, but I always try to only purchase software when I feel that what I'm paying today is worth what I'm getting today.

That reduces the likelyhood of a big disappointment (not that I'm ever 'happy' when software stops being supported).

Roger Thomasson This is an interesting and ongoing discussion, nice to see some balanced opinions :)

As some of you have already mentioned, it can be easy to forget that development costs quickly fractionalize profits, which is why ultimately I think that the question is best left to the software developer. They're the only ones that understand exactly how this decision will affect their livelihood and bottom line.

And of course, this question is complicated by those 40%-80% discounts that we like to offer around these parts :)

HBOY Lifetime upgrades is the first thing I check for. The problem I have with renewing every year is this, one of the first softwares I purchased years ago was 1 Click DVD Copy. I received Version 5. Throughout the year they came out with several updates and when the year subscription ended it was around version 5.4 and some were important updates. As luck would have it I had to restore my pc,I had saved the last updated version to disk. When I tried to reinstall, I had to go back to version 5 and lose all the updates. Thats when I went to Slysoft with free lifetime upgrades.

tom drake Good company will have the installers for older versions available on their website or upon request.