Bell Tech Pricing

[Dick Dunn]

> > ...  Your ad (I've seen it in the June Unix Review and the latest Dr.
> > Dobb's) screams (well, 23 point type, anyway!) that I can get Unix SVR3
> > for a 386 *complete* for $145...
[but a note that this doesn't include media containing any software...]
> > [It just occurred to me that, since Bell Tech is willing to sell me just
> > a license, I should be able to copy a friend's floppies...
This was just an attempt to find a way to get the $145 UNIX for $145...
...To which Dmitri Rotow (of Bell Tech) replied:
> We'd be happy to sell you just a license, except that you cannot copy your
> friend's diskettes [AT&T's rules, not ours].  Since AT&T imposes profound
> restrictions on the physical duplication of UNIX media we believe that we 
> must sell at least one copy of physical media to each licensee in order to
> have a defensible case in court with AT&T...

But then you've quite nearly said that you won't sell UNIX for a 386 for
$145.  I would think this would put you in a precarious legal situation
too, wouldn't it?  What do you do with the guy who says, "Here's my $145;
gimme a UNIX!"?  If you tell him that he can't really have it for that
amount of money, he's going to be unhappy no matter what, and he might come
after you for misleading him.

It's a sort of flip on the joke where the guy sees a sign that says
something like "Buy one hamburger for $1, get the second one half price,"
walks up with 50 cents and says, "Here...I want the second burger."

You've advertised the "quantity price" without giving the initial cost...
like specifying a line where you've given the slope but not the inter-
cept.

But Rotow also offered:
>...If the flames continue
> we'll change the ad ... any suggestions on how to get across the idea that
> you get *all* of UNIX whilst retaining the disaggregation of media, license,
> and docs?

Hey, I'm glad they're listening!  How about something like "first license
$xxx, additional licenses only $yyy, documentation $zzz per set"?

If it's really important to establish a price comparison with your competi-
tors (which I suspect is the problem), why not do exactly that?  That is,
let your ad show what we'd pay for one complete system from you versus your
competitors.  Since you're showing a bundled price, take the piece prices
of your competitors' systems and add them up to get what's equivalent to
one of yours, then show the figures...maybe show single-system and multi-
system prices to indicate your $145 increment, but don't play the "wheels
extra" game.  A good price for a software system with "software extra" is
like a bargain on flashlight batteries with "batteries not included."
-- 
Dick Dunn      UUCP: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd           (303)449-2870
   ...Are you making this up as you go along?