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John Allred said:
>
> I hesitate to suggest such a thing... it seems almost heretical. Why do
> release cycles need to be so rapid that they outrun anyone's ability to
> support them? Do we users gain anything? Or do the manufacturers create
> more revenue from a heavy churn rate? Oh, wait! Duh! If you want proof
> that we're being constantly pushed to upgrade, go to Adobe's web site
> and try to find help, documentation, downloads, you name it, for any of
> their apps prior to CS5. It's as if the previous versions never
> existed.
Well, they probably realize that:
1) New! Improved! Best EVER!.... etc. will sell, and
2) It's easier/cheaper to market to current customers than to new ones.
So, you don't care what you sell to new customers, except that you refresh it once in a while to make it look ... ahem... New! Improved!, etc.
And you can't really re-sell exactly what current customers have, so you increment a little to prod them to update. If all you are selling are bits and bytes, that are 100% cost free after the first copy, then selling to previously acquired customers is very low-cost. Part of that is discouraging them from remaining with previous versions.
Also, those vendors selling you something new, every-so-often, re-confirms that you are still alive and therefore a useful record on their mailing list that "we would NEVER sell to anyone... except our subsidiaries, partners, affiliates.......... (in other words, half the internet)."
- kevin (I am not a cynic, though I could play one on TV)
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