Craig
Member
Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA
Posts: 3 |
Everyone,
Thanks for all the valuable feedback on MyBible. I appreciate your concerns and want to address your issues.
Anyone else saddened by the $20 pricetag for the KJV of the Bible at Laridian??? Something that is not copywrited, [sic] so it is free to use (which it was previously), they jump the price to $20, add to that the $10 for the program, talking $30 for that, which you can get a real Bible printed on real paper, with a leather cover for that price. Here, no printing cost, just formatting cost which had already been done. I can understand charging for the NIV because it is not public domain, and you have to pay to use it, but not for the KJV.
Let's compare the KJV and the NIV. There's a $10 royalty on the NIV (which, if you want to complain about price, that's a good place to start) and none on the KJV. So let's subtract the $10 royalty from our $29.99 price and we're left with $19.99, which is what we charge for the KJV. So technically we charge the same for these two translations after royalties.
You've already said you're willing to pay $29.99 for the NIV ($19.99 after the royalty) and you think that's fair. So by your own argument, $19.99 without the royalty is a fair price for an electronic Bible and therefore our prices are fair. But let's just pretend you weren't thinking that way exactly and look at what else is in that cost.
Both Bibles require someone to edit the text (what we call "tagging") to prepare it for conversion into a compressed format. Both Bibles require conversion/compression and other preparation for delivery. Both Bibles have to be posted at our server and a means provided for you to order and download. My point is that in every respect these two are identical after the royalty, and they're identically priced after the royalty.
You might argue that most of this work was done when we took over. That's true. But Servant Software was giving this work away for free. They had never been compensated for it. This is the kind of investment you make in a product when you're trying to get it off the ground. I don't know if the royalty we pay them will ever compensate them for all the hard work they did to create these Bibles, but we're hoping it will.
Now let's look at the cost of the Bible reader program. We charge $10. That's pretty miniscule. But instead of adding that $10 to the cost of one Bible, add it to the cost of 3 (or in the case of our current Windows CE product, add it to six Bibles) and you see the incremental cost isn't that much. You're getting potential access to lots of material for that one investment.
Is it your intention to argue that we shouldn't charge anything? You're probably not aware that the two main people here at Laridian (Jeff Wheeler and I) left extremely well-paying jobs with Parsons Technology (a division of The Learning Company) about a year ago to work without pay to bring quality Bible software to handheld and palmtop platforms. Both of us left substantial stock options on the table (in my case well into six figures) when we left. I'm not saying this to brag or to evoke sympathy. What I'm trying to point out is that $10, of which a portion goes to Servant Software and the rest pays costs at Laridian, just ain't that much in the grand scheme of things, and especially when you look at what people like David at Servant Software and Jeff and I are sacrificing to bring you these products that help you understand the Bible better.
I think that there will be far fewer people using this software if it is more than the price of a "real Bible".... I wish Laridian well but I do hope they rethink things.
Just having lots of people using the software is nice, but you can't keep creating more useful software when your kids are hungry.
I've talked to other electronic publishers (and I was in this business for over ten years before starting Laridian) and for the most part electronic books are priced in the neighborhood of their print counterparts. (Most of the cost of paper books is in distribution, not paper.) Sure, you can buy a KJV Bible for the same $19.99 you pay for MyBible, but you can't do searches nor can you cut and paste into memo pad.
Are any of you programmers, or do any of you know some programmers? It seems a crime to have to pay $20+ for a Bible when you can just buy a real one for less.
What makes a printed Bible more "real" than the Bible on your Palm device? And I haven't bought a Bible for less than $20 for ages. And none of my print Bibles do searching or let me instantly compare two translations (OK, I do have a KJV/NIV Bible but I can't find a NIV/NASB which is what I really want... and by the way the KJV/NIV thing went for about $50 15 years ago).
I am in no way familiar with Laridian, but there are a lot of companies out there that publish Bible software and aren't Christian companies. Therefore, thay are only concerned with making money, and know that Bible software is a specialized niche that doesn't offer a whole lot of competition. So, if any of you, or anyone you know could download the development kit and create a Bible (I'm sure all the data is available out there on the web for download somewhere, and the KJV should be free, but probably not the NIV), we could all benefit.
Chris, you just told my life story. In 1988 I started writing the program that would become QuickVerse as a project for me and my pastor. I sold it from home for a few months, then took it to Parsons Technology. At Parsons we built the world's largest Christian software company. I left there when it became clear that the only thing the new owners were interested in was the stock price... not in creating great software to meet customer needs and offering great customer service. Together with Jeff Wheeler I wrote a Bible program for Windows CE and started selling that in October 1998. A while back as we started looking into Palm development we met David at Servant Software, who was looking for someone to get him out from under support and sales headaches (for which he was not being compensated, I might add). So rather than compete with him we did a mutually agreeable deal.
If anyone does follow your advice and creates their own software, they'll have a long uphill road. Especially since nobody here seems to be interested in paying them for their time. :-)
(by the way, Craig, that link doesn't seem to work)
I've communicated with you in email to resolve this.
At least they are offering past Scripture owners a discount.
Boy, it's tough to get credit for being a nice guy here. Thanks!
I agree that the price of MyBible and bible files are high. I sent Laridian an email asking if they offer student discounts!
I got your email about Springboard and replied to it but didn't see one about student discounts. No, we don't.
Anyway, I went to the original Scripture site and found out that Servant Software is still the one developing the product! Laridian is merely providing the distribution and customer support muscle that Servant is unable to provide... So we're paying for tech support.
A portion of our revenue goes to Servant Software to compensate them for development so you're not just paying for support. The Laridian portion covers acquiring additional content and providing marketing, sales, distribution, etc. All those things cost money.
Boy you guys are a tough crowd. I guess I must be odd... it seems to me that "the laborer is worthy of his wages". I read that somewhere....
Thanks for the opportunity to comment. This is currently a low-volume market and so prices are going to be high until the volume comes up. Or until the competition heats up. That's the way things work. We think (and thousands of our customers think) our prices are at least close enough to fair to make the produt worth buying. But that's all in the eye of the purchaser, so it's up to you. Just wanted to help you see the other side.
God Bless You All,
Craig
[This message has been edited by Craig (edited 11-01-1999).]
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11-01-1999 05:01 AM
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