[ANN] Dolphin Giveaway with PCPro Magazine

Folks,

You may be interested to know that the October 2001 edition (out now) of the
UK PCPro magazine includes a FREE full copy of Dolphin Smalltalk Value
Edition on the cover CD. Inside the magazine you'll also find an upgrade
offer for Dolphin Standard Edition and Dolphin Professional which gives a
$60 discount of the purchase price of either of these products.

If you'd like more information about the Dolphin Smalltalk product range
then please visit our Products page at:

http://www.object-arts.com/Products.htm

Remember the magazine CD carries the FULL unrestricted version of Dolphin
Value Edition (worth $59.95) so, if you're interested in Smalltalk
programming for MS Windows it's a great bargain. The PCPro CD also carries
trial versions of the higher level Dolphin products. These are also
available for download and registration at:

http://www.object-arts.com/Trial

Best Regards,

Andy Bower
Object Arts Ltd.
http://www.object-arts.com
---
Are you trying too hard?
http://www.object-arts.com/Relax.htm
---

Excellent!  Great way to promote a great product!!

Andy Bower wrote:

Andy Bower wrote:
>
> Folks,
>
> You may be interested to know that the October 2001 edition (out now) of the
> UK PCPro magazine includes a FREE full copy of Dolphin Smalltalk Value
> Edition on the cover CD. Inside the magazine you'll also find an upgrade
> offer for Dolphin Standard Edition and Dolphin Professional which gives a
> $60 discount of the purchase price of either of these products.

Great idea! How about us folks back in the States?  Why not offer the
same deal over the web for a limited time?

regards

--
Frank Caggiano "The best education for the best
[hidden email] is the best education for all."
http://www.crystal-objects.com/                   Robert M. Hutchins

Logo Users Ring
http://www.crystal-objects.com/logo/logoring.html

Frank,

> Great idea! How about us folks back in the States?  Why not offer the
> same deal over the web for a limited time?

The idea behind placing a free copy of DVE in PCPro magazine was to use an
alternative medium to the web (i.e. print) to attract more potential
customers to both Smalltalk and Dolphin who wouldn't have otherwise found
out about them. In our view, simply giving the software away on the web does
little to do this. Remember, we've been through the free software route
(with Dolphin 1.x and 2.x) and franky have found it to be rather
unprofitable. I note that Red Hat has recently some to a similar conclusion
about trying to generate revenues by charging support for what is
effectively free software (i.e Linux).

For the moment, therefore, it is our intention to offer free 30 day trials
of all our commercial software and occasionally use free copies of DVE where
we think it will generate some additional publicity. For example, Ted
Bracht's forthcoming book, The Dolphin Smalltalk Companion will come with a
free copy of DVE on the accompanying CD.

Best Regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
http://www.object-arts.com
---
Are you trying too hard?
http://www.object-arts.com/Relax.htm
---

<snip>

>For the moment, therefore, it is our intention to offer free 30 day trials
>of all our commercial software and occasionally use free copies of DVE where
>we think it will generate some additional publicity. For example, Ted
>Bracht's forthcoming book, The Dolphin Smalltalk Companion will come with a
>free copy of DVE on the accompanying CD.

I guess this begs the question. Why would anyone pay for DVE if they
can get the book. Also it would be unfair to them when they find out
that they could have bought the book for the same money.

Since DVE will be on the book you may as well drop DVE and sell the
book in its place (or sell DVE and include the book).

Costas

Costas,

> >For the moment, therefore, it is our intention to offer free 30 day
trials
> >of all our commercial software and occasionally use free copies of DVE
where
> >we think it will generate some additional publicity. For example, Ted
> >Bracht's forthcoming book, The Dolphin Smalltalk Companion will come with
a
> >free copy of DVE on the accompanying CD.
>
> I guess this begs the question. Why would anyone pay for DVE if they
> can get the book. Also it would be unfair to them when they find out
> that they could have bought the book for the same money.
> Since DVE will be on the book you may as well drop DVE and sell the
> book in its place (or sell DVE and include the book).

Actually, I think the book will be somewhat cheaper than DVE! The difference
is that the book version of DVE will be fixed at version 4 and, at some
point, will be superceded by version 5 of the commercial product. When this
happens, the book owners and other version 4 users will (hopefully) be
persuaded to upgrade to the latest version. If DVE was no longer a
commercial product this would be a source of revenue lost.

The other factor is that publishers (like PCPro or Pearson) like to be able
to give "something of value" away with their products. If DVE was free to
download by all there would be less incentive to bundle it along with a
publication.

Best Regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
http://www.object-arts.com
---
Are you trying too hard?
http://www.object-arts.com/Relax.htm
---