Many sophisticated software packages have a junior version, sold at a lower price. This may be necessary to encourage sales, but it's a pain maintaining two versions.
Not having a junior vesion means that a prospective user has to commit himself to a large outlay - so you may have a demonstration version also. Or you may be keeping the full version's price artificially low, on the grounds that so few users need all the features, so you'd reduce sales by pricing too high.
Psychologically, the easiest path for any purchaser is to buy the initial software cheaply and then to slowly buy more features as he learns to use the program.
This idea enables you to do all of the above: you need only have one version of the software, but you should be able to charge an introductory price for a simplified version, with few features enabled, and to unlock the features slowly as the customer pays upgrade fees to gain access to more features.
You have only one version of the software. But each feature in the software is activated by a user access code. This code is either tied in with a serial number or with some other user identification number.
If the user has picked up the program as a demonstration, then only the features with the lowest access code can be used. If a user pays top price for the software, then his access code will allow access to every single feature.
You could then charge any price you wish and have as many access levels as you care to incorporate into the program. A user can buy the entry level access rights for maybe £30.00. The full price version may be £300.00. When the new user finds he needs access to the next level of features, he simply buys an access code for the next level.
This enables new users to buy a cheap version initially, to try. If they want to go on, they can commit themselves slowly. There is no large initial cash outlay, no sudden decision to purchase a high price item. They can, if they wish, stay at a low level, or they can go on to buy the full version in stages at whatever rate they desire.
It also greatly simplifies the user's learning curve!
Done properly, it should also impose a natural order on any written instruction manuals.
If the access codes are properly incorporated, they should add little to the chore of program maintenance and updating. The system will completely remove all the problems caused by having different versions of the software.
It's an idea which is almost trivially simple! But do date, it does not seem to have been thought of! I hope it is of use to some RISCOS software houses.
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