Price increase coming

[reagle]

Just got an email:
"Simply, Altium Designer represents the single best value in EDA. However, to be more in line with global currencies we will be adjusting the North America pricing accordingly. Therefore commencing on Mar 1st 2012, the price of an Altium Designer Board Implementation license will rise by $500 USD to $5495 USD, while subscription prices remain unaffected at $1500 USD."

[amspire]

I don't know what currency that they are comparing the US dollar too. The US dollar has been getting stronger against most of the currencies of the world since September last year. The Hong Kong dollar has got about 0.5% stronger, so with some creative accounting, I guess that equates to the need for a 5% price increase. What is a decimal point among friends?

The US dollar has got 12% stronger against the Euro, so I guess the Euro isn't a global currency. The only country that has grown significantly stronger then the US dollar since September is the Chinese Yuan that has grown 2.5%.

I think any measure of "global currencies" would lead to the conclusion that the US should have a 5% price drop.

Then again, the person announcing this also believes Altium Designer is better value then the free packages like Kicad, Eagle, etc.

[joelby]

Wouldn't it be against the Australian dollar? The currencies have been at parity for a while, so Australian companies selling to customers in the USA would now be earning 10-20% less than they were 18+ months ago.

[amspire]

Wouldn't it be against the Australian dollar? The currencies have been at parity for a while, so Australian companies selling to customers in the USA would now be earning 10-20% less than they were 18+ months ago.

I was just looking at the figures since September. In that time the Australian dollar and the American dollar have been roughly in parity with a lot of oscillations.

It is odd that Altium feel that they have to raise the US dollar price when the US dollar has been consistently gaining value against "global currencies" for months.

The press statement is just pure nonsense. If they want to say "We decided to increase the price", then just say it without the fictional excuses. It is nothing to do with the global currencies - Altium just want more money.

Is it smart with all the current economic problems? I doubt it. Since the Euro has declined about 12% since September, Europe will be hit with a 17% increase since September just as their economies are going down the toilet.

[EEVblog]

Wouldn't it be against the Australian dollar? The currencies have been at parity for a while, so Australian companies selling to customers in the USA would now be earning 10-20% less than they were 18+ months ago.

Not according to Altium's official reporting income. Many years back they changed all the companies public financial reporting to US dollars.
So unless they have changed it back (will find out in the next financial report), they are just making excuses.
Still gotta pay for that big unused office in Sydney...

Dave.

[HLA-27b]

Software should follow Moore's law.
For every year that they don't the number of their copies doubles.

[reagle]

I can see price increases if the package actually was getting better. I still get 2-3 crashes a day..

[Rufus]

will rise by $500 USD

Hiking the package price isn't going to win them more subscription customers, on the other hand I don't know if they still have the staff to produce enough updates and improvements for customers to want to subscribe.

Release 10 is about a year old so your $1500 bought bug fixes that should be free, some component library, improved schematic ERC control, and arbitrary pad shapes. Not a lot really and of course I ignore the Altium Live and vault access junk.

[mkissin]

Release 10 is about a year old so your $1500 bought bug fixes that should be free [...]

I wish this were true. MATLAB, SolidWorks and numerous other bits of technical software screw you the moment you leave software assurance. Bug fixes aren't free anymore.

Hell, if you managed to get SolidWorks 2012 SP0 just before your subscription ran out, you were royally poked. That had some bugs so severe our reseller actually refused to distribute it to us until an update came out.