Month: April 2011

Pricing software can be more difficult than creating one. There are companies who do just this ndash; pricing software for others. Setting the low price brings more customers but requires more investments into customers support. Higher prices simplify customers support, but require more investments into sales and marketing.

Pricing software was a science for many years. The ability to have a cake and eat it too makes software (and music, and videos) different comparing to tangible products. A finished program (a song, a video) can be sold many times, but the rightsholder still has it, and can keep selling the same thing over and over again. Isn “t it amazing?

Many years ago Apple started selling downloadable songs for $.99 a piece. It “s a lot easier to shell out ninety nine cents for just one song than $15 for the entire CD. Besides, the inventory is limitless ndash; you don “t depend any longer on the stock of the local music store. In no time a consumer spends the same $15 or more and production costs are close to zero.

But songs don “t need technical support. You won “t blame a musician for playing a wrong note. This is not the case with the software though. You want that bug to be fixed AFTER the sale is made.

During the last 15 years trillions of lines of open source and free software have been written. Most of these lines are a dead code that nobody uses. This code became useless because of the lack of funds for maintenance and customer support. And there is no one to blame for this. Software developers also need to buy food, houses, gasoline hellip; They can “t work for free.

The vendors of a popular open source software make a living by charging an arm and a leg for training and customization of their products. They charge for service.

Last week one person called me asking my opinion about a certain software for advertising and managing meeting, conferences, and trainings. I “ve been using the services of this vendor for several years. When I told the guy that they charge a fee for each person registering for to the event, he said, “Excellent! I was afraid they “d do it for free! If they charge money, they can provide support. rdquo; Think about it ndash; he didn “t want free service.

Then Apple did something else that changed people “s expectations about the cost of the software. There are thousands of applications on sale at iTunes store. Most of the products cost just a couple of bucks. Most of the products are useless. But it “s so easy to pay two dollars even for something that you won “t need. The last time I did it was yesterday. I had a program for iPad that had a certain issue. A quick search revealed that there is another great program of this kind, and people gave it great ratings. One minute later I paid $2.99 hellip;just to find out two minutes later that it suffers the same problem that the original one. So what? It “s only $2.99. I won “t even bother researching about their return policy.

I “m sure many people easily get parted with their dollars getting cheap software they “ll never use. And by doing so, they set a new pattern for pricing software. The vendors will be slowly forced to lower their prices way below what was considered reasonable just a couple of years ago. And this will affect not only the consumer “s market, but the enterprise software too. It “ll be more and more difficult to sell $100K+ software to managers who (after business hours) live in a world where software costs $2.99. OK, $9.99. Alright, $19.99.

Don “t you think that the quality of the software must go down the drain to be able to make it to the shelves of the one-dollar stores? Am I making things up?

Passing a technical job interview is a challenge to most of the Java developers. Some people simply fail because they are not well prepared and questions like “What “s the difference between abstract classes interfaces? rdquo; puts them into a comatose state. In such cases Mr. President won ‘t help. But there is a large group of people who know the difference between abstract classes and interfaces, but still feel stressed and intimidated and can “t properly explain it to give the interviewer the confidence he “s looking for. The interviewer has only one thing in mind, “Can I trust a developer “s role on our project to this job applicant? rdquo;

There are people who always pass any interview with flying colors regardless if they know the difference between abstract classes and interfaces or not. And this is where you have to learn from President Obama, who is one of these guys.

This is what you do. Go to Youtube and start watching President Obama “s Statement on Lybia , but turn the sound off. He couldn ‘t explain why we needed to bomb Lybia anyway. But watch how he speaks and presents himself. People trust him no matter what he “s talking about. Now imagine that President Obama explains the difference between abstract classes and interfaces. I “m dead serious. Look at his body language, the posture, the pace of his speech.

Try to repeat it in front of the mirror. No, not about Lybia. About the difference between abstract classes and interfaces. Ask your spouse/girlfried/boyfriend to compare you and HIM. The closer you get the better your chances are of passing the Java interview with flying colors.

To illustrate my technique, I “ve recorded a short soundrack on abstract classes and interfaces. This soundtrack must be used while watching President Obama talking about Lybia.

If my technique will help you passing your next technical interview, please donate $50 to the charity of your choice.