Author: Howard Exner
Date: 05:27:03 10/30/98
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On October 30, 1998 at 05:55:25, Ed Schröder wrote: >I assume everything I say will not be good enough so I will make it short. > >Rebel10 customers who have bought before October 29 will get our first >PC program Gideon (1993) which we will baptize to REBEL 1.0 for free. >It's a really nice looking program for your collection. > >Distribution via the Rebel Home Page after say 1-2 weeks as it takes >some time to make it ready. > >Decisive will be if you have subscribed. I advice all of you who bought >Rebel10 and not have subscribed yet to go to: > > http://www.rebel.nl/intsub.htm > >and subscribe over there. Deadline for the Gideon offer will be Friday >November 6, 1998 so one week from now. I purchased Rebel 10 immidiately upon its announcement I've subscribed already for Rebel 10 as I think your web page support and download offerings for subscribers are worthwhile. As for requesting Gideon I think I'll pass. Did you consider giving your early purchase customers : 1. A cash rebate. Many retailers now have a policy of "if we drop our price within 30 days you will be refunded the difference". It is a popular customer relations policy to keep us consumers coming back. 2. Giving them a gift coupon (of the price difference) towards the purchase of the EOC disk, a Rebel 10 related product. > >About prices... > >#1. Every date you pick for a price drop is never good for people who just >bought. The price had to fall (no choice, see below) so the sooner the >better meaning less victims of the price drop. I can live with the price drop. It will be good for those who did not rush out and buy it in the first two weeks. > >#2. It was our intention to sell Rebel10 for the normal price you are used >to pay since years despite the fact there was a tendency to lower prices >for chess software. > >#3. We were unhappily surprised by the lowering of prices by two major >companies Mindscape and ChessBase. More over we saw this price drop >being advertised in all chess magazines at Rebel10's release time next >to our advertisement of $119.95. Are not the chessbase products quite dated by now? I did not realize that Mindscape dropped there CM6000 price. I thought CM6000, being mass market, was cheap from the start. > >#4. Decisive for yesterday's decision to match the price was the >information we received that another major producer of chess software >(Millennium 2000) dropped their price of a *new* product. This is new >and never happened before. > >#5. Add up point 3 & 4, mix them, shake them and it is not so difficult >to see that the high prices of chess software as you are used to pay >since years can not be kept any longer. As Fernando correctly pointed >out in another posting we are indeed entering a new area concerning >end-user-prices for professional chess software. You can take my word >for it that if we would have known all of this on beforehand we >certainly would have released Rebel10 at yesterday's prices right away. > >#6. As already explained, if you see this to happen then better react >immediately because the less victims you make. Do you see us early purchasers as victims? > >Some thoughts and conclusions... > >#1. The good news is of course that prices for chess software will lower >for good as I don't expect any producer of chess software will dare to ask >the old high prices for new released chess software any longer. So far so >good. > >#2. On the other hand producers of chess software will see their income >drop while having the same costs. > >#3. With the Rebel 1.0 offer we hope to compensate our faithful customers >a little who just have bought Rebel10. With our dealers we hope to find >an acceptable solution. Anyway don't blame them for the current price war >as there is really nothing they can do about. Yes, I've always had good support from the major software dealers, in my case ICD and GambiSoft. > >- Ed Schroder - >Author of REBEL10
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