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Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w [message #3713 is a reply to message #3687]

Fri, 03 March 1995 14:08

chase
Messages: 62
Registered: May 1993

Member

>>>> > "Joseph" == Joseph M Zawodny <zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov> writes:
In article <3j7329$e5a@reznor.larc.nasa.gov> zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:

Joseph> In article <gurman-0203950142100001@barkochba.gsfc.nasa.gov> gurman@uvsp.gsfc.nasa.gov (Joseph B. Gurman) writes:
Joseph> IMHO, RSI is going the wrong way on this. They need to hold the line
Joseph> on maint costs and drop the price of IDL to be more in line with the
Joseph> competition (like PV-WAVE, Hi-Q, Matlab, ...). These are all running
Joseph> at about half the cost of IDL. Market share and size of total market
Joseph> are the key to stable profits. I have no doubt IDL would do well in
Joseph> head to head competition against these other packages, but at twice
Joseph> the cost they price themselves in to another league (and out of the
Joseph> competition).

I have to disagree with the price comparison to Matlab.

This week I have been pricing Matlab for UNIX workstations. It costs
$3995 for adding a single network license from the MathWorks. You can
save a small amount of money by going through a distributor. An IDL
for UNIX workstations can cost around $3000 for a negotiated price.
Toolboxes for Matlab are an additional cost and they run $1000 to
$2000 _per_ license.

Additionally, now one must pay a yearly maintenance fee for each
Matlab and toolbox license. This fee is 20% of the list price for
each license. This fee is different than that for IDL in that if you
don't pay it, when the license expires Matlab stops working. Thanks
goodness RSI hasn't decided to do this. What if you had a critical
application done in Matlab and at some point could no longer afford to
pay maintenance? It would just stop working after the expiration
date! Granted, the Mathworks offers a perpetual license that does not
have an expiration date, but it costs an _additional_ 40% for each
Matlab and toolbox license.

Compared to Matlab costs, IDL is competitive. IDL is cheaper, but not
hugely. And IDL does not expire if you decide to no longer have
maintenance.

The above comments do not apply to educational pricing nor to PC or
Mac platform pricing.

Chris
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[Message index]

		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: murthy on Tue, 07 March 1995 09:51
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: rivers on Tue, 07 March 1995 19:30
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: tribbey on Fri, 03 March 1995 06:19
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: gurman on Sat, 04 March 1995 07:55
		IDL Student Edition for Linux? By: davem on Fri, 03 March 1995 16:31
		Re: IDL Student Edition for Linux? By: ps on Thu, 09 March 1995 08:14
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: chase on Fri, 03 March 1995 14:08
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: zawodny on Fri, 03 March 1995 04:46
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: hrebhan on Tue, 28 February 1995 02:23
		Re: IDL 4.0 Update Preview (forward for those w By: gurman on Wed, 01 March 1995 22:42

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