A few days ago I had a discussion with José Carlos Cortizo and with Victor Peinado About what is a premium product in computing. About whether the user is willing to pay for more features or for more quality.
At the last turn of the century a new business model emerged, the free business model. Free business model is a contradiction in terminis. Como diría un gallego: depende. Google es la empresa más rentable del Mundo y se basa en ese modelo, en Google todo es gratis, pero en todas sus líneas de producción, salvo, de momento en Youtube, gana dinero. El modelo que lo explica es el fremiumThere are different ways to put that dividing line between free and paid. I think the best of them is to pay for a stable version and have the unstable one for free, plus you can add a support service for the paid version, the premium one. Those who take the trouble to test the additional versions, the beta testers, who are true fans of the brand, I think they should be rewarded in some way, as they serve to correct bugs before releasing a product to the market.
Uno de los sectores con business models más maduros es el del automóvil, cuando te compras una gran marca, un coche caro de verdad, lo haces por varias razones: en primer lugar porque te lo puedes permitir, además porque es exclusivo (cúspide de la Maslow's pyramid), perhaps because it has a good design and performance, but also because you believe it will not leave you stranded on the road and also has a great after-sales service.
The most extrapolable to computing are the last two features, especially when, on the Internet, the Renault Clio without warranty and authorized workshops, is given for free, while Mercedes cost money. I think Apple has proven it, their products do not offer more features than PCs, but they are more stable, or at least, they were. Ease of use is another additional reason, because including more features usually goes against the ease of use of a software, as it leads to more cumbersome and less intuitive menus, all things being equal, and the user who has the money to buy the product, usually has little time to learn how to use it. That said, most premium models rely on paying for additional features, but, for example, this is not the case with WordPress VIP, which I mentioned in the previous post.
