Do you really believe those extra 10 GB and 65 projects cost 37signals $50 a month to deliver to you?
No, I don't. What I said was "they offer different plans whose prices probably don't scale linearly with the costs behind them (in other words, they don't get the same profit across plans)". I acknowledged that the price is not a linear function of the costs and that they get more profit from more expensive plans. My question was "why is that evil?"
Similarly, do you really believe that the cost of supporting 48 GB of memory versus 32 GB cost Microsoft $1000 per customer to build?
I'm sorry if I sound hostile, Jeff, but I read your post before commenting on it -- did you read my comment before replying? I said that the artificial memory limitation is completely ridiculous (unless there's a valid technical reason for it). As I explicitly state in my other comments, I believe that's unethical.
Here's the summary of what I believe, a Cliffs Notes edition of my comments: Having rich customers pay more is not unethical, crippling the features of your product to extort money is.
I'd agree, companies which sell software products by-the-license and companies which sell software products by-the-month are both in, essentially, the same business. They've both got price/feature matrices, even the lowly shareware company, which at the simplest level has a "Trial" and "Paid Version" two-column matrix. This is nothing to get worked up over -- it is a fundamental fact of our industry. We charge money for value, and value exceeds marginal cost by a stupendous amount.
I'm sick of dealing with marketing weasel feature matrices
This line would be funnier if there were an ironic marker or perhaps some indication that it was self-deprecating humor. As it is, it sort of sounds like you mean what you're saying. Which would be... interesting in light of your own business model, announced like two days ago.
There is worse in the enterprise market, where they basically charge exactly what you can afford (sometimes a bit more) ratcheting it up as you get more and more locked-in. Read about software pricing economics and how you just have to suck it up till you hit the "Fuck You Oracle" point here:
Amusingly, it looks like he'll be an Oracle employee since they are now buying Sun.
(Note, this is "just business" as far as I'm concerned, i.e. about .7 on the weasel scale. What saddens me is organisations too short-sighted or misinformed to see the trap they are lumbering into as they are too distracted by salesmen with slick powerpoints, particularly if they are governments wasting my tax dollars)
Consider the basecamp $99 plan vs the basecamp $49 plan:
100 projects / 35 projects vs. 20 GB storage / 10 GB storage
Do you really believe those extra 10 GB and 65 projects cost 37signals $50 a month to deliver to you?
Similarly, do you really believe that the cost of supporting 48 GB of memory versus 32 GB cost Microsoft $1000 per customer to build?
Wolf in sheep's clothing, exact same concept with Web 2.0 patina. Rich customers pay more.
Anyway, my argument isn't really about the money, but the mental friction. I'm sick of dealing with marketing weasel feature matrices