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Re: PAS Pricing



In response to my posting about Physics Academic Software's new prices,
John Gastineau wrote:

Should AIP subsidize PAS? I don't know. The physics software market
is amazingly small. Most physics packages are more expensive than
PAS products--Interactive Physics is $249, Videopoint is $150. So,
PAS has been a bargain in the past. Vernier Software there in your
hometown sells things like Graphical Analysis for just $50 a site
license, but they can't make any money on that. They're a hardware
company.

These prices may be what has to be paid to obtain quality stuff.

Well, I would have to say that, if the physics software market is so
small that there must either be high prices or subsidies, I vote for
subsidies. Yes, Interactive Physics is $249, but its flexibility is much
greater than most PAS offerings. But my point is really this: At the
old prices, I could probably have found $500 to $1000 to spend this year
on PAS software and I would have doen so because I could get a good value
for my money. If I got $600, I could have had site licenses for both EM
Field and Electric Field Hockey (my priority right now). At the new
prices, I won't be able to buy site licenses for either (they are $700
each). If I chose then to buy single copies (using $280 of my $600), I
would have $320 left which I would probably spend elsewhere. Under the
new pricing scheme, PAS will actually get less of my money than they
would have.



David J. Hamilton, Ed.D. "And gladly wolde he lerne,
Franklin HS, Portland, OR and gladly teche."
djhamil@teleport.com Geoffrey Chaucer