Calling All Vendors

All vendors need to visit Andrew's blog post

https://www.boonex.com/n/making-a-case-for-subscriptions-based-market

Actually, I want to hear from vendors about the current setup where someone buys a module and they are entitled to support and updates for the rest of the life. Providing support takes time and someones time shouldn't be a one time purchase. I can see ending support for products after some time of purchase and if they want support, they buy it.

No software business does this, its not sustainable. Some math?

Every year you sell 20 modules for say $20 bucks.

In 2 years you sold 40 modules and earned $800(20 x 40)

Now you have 40 clients and that you need to support for the rest of your or boonex's life.

Another year passed and now you're at 60 clients and earned another 400, clients increasing exponentially and sales are static.

Now, vendor has 2 choices, keep this slavery going or leave boonex. Who will be happy then? the client who will not get any updates ever or the vendor whose job turned more into a free support staff than actual developer of fresh ideas?

I am not saying every client takes lots of hours of support but the point is that they are entitled to and at some point, say 100 clients, you pretty much always have someone that needs support each and every day. no matter if you're selling anything at all. It maybe be possible to sustain this if this is your full time job and you get lots of sales because you have lots of modules but it doesn't work for everyone. Its a barrier to entry into boonex's good vendors list.

For the time I have been here, I have seen many good devs disappear and I like to think I can understand why.

Just my 2 cents.

Vendors should get paid for updates, vendors should also get paid for their time also. But vendors also needs to stand behind their products. Like free installation! Also do not rename a module that you have updated to make more money off of it. charge a decent update price to the people who already purchased you modules.When someone purchase a module from you install it the first time correctly and make sure there are no problems. The biggest piece of selling anything is the service that's behind it.

I personally offer free installation for all my modules. I am not sure if other vendors do. The market currently does not have any provision to charge for updates so some vendors opt to re-release the module as an "advanced" version. If the market was designed to accommodate fees for updates in the first place this problem would not arise.

It's a common and acceptable practice. For example, new apps versions in Apple App Store are just re-relased with updated name - like "Super App 2". This keeps things simple - old listings remain intact and buyers can still download older versions compatible with their Dolphin. It is up to the vendor to decide when they want to offer a free update for the old module, or when they want to re-release as a whole new version.