Well, we appear to be on the precipice of another REALbasic price
increase, this time in the Standard Edition. Since time immemorial,
the Standard Edition has been priced at a reasonable $99.95 (recently
rounded to $100.00), with upgrades at half that price. Even with the
switch to the subscription model, this had always remained unchanged.
When additional revenue was needed, REAL Software typically reduced
costs (charging extra for manuals, etc.) rather than increase the
Standard price. The Pro price, however, did steadily increase from
$299.95 to where it is now at a whopping $500. But all that time,
Standard never budged.
Well, all good things must come to an end, I suppose. Standard is
doubling in price to $200, although still available for $100 at the
moment (likely to switch to the new price when RB2008R1 is released).
Although the web site doesn't indicate this, I expect that the upgrade
price to double as well, from $50 to $100.
I guess I can't begrudge them too much. It's been a great deal going
along this far. As the market saturates, fewer new licenses will be
sold and more renewals will take their place. Since RS's operating
costs will not be going down any time soon, the base of renewals will
have to shoulder more of the burden now.
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