I'll just suggest Microsoft Math for Word:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=030fae9c-704f-48ca-971d-56241aefc764&displaylang=enOn 1/10/2010 1:58:13 PM, ColinCWare wrote:
>the Nature
>of the Universe is not that
>fancy or complicated.
Unlike the actual universe....
>Hi Richard, In no way did I
>mean $0.
No - But there aren't a lot of options, and they are all expensive. This suggestion was the only realistic answer to your specific question.
>They could sell three or four
>times more copies of their
>offerings if the prices were
>set at 50% and then offer 20%
>reduction on the first 50
>orders.
The argument doesn't hold true. That statements assumes high price elasticity - that a change in price will be matched by large proportional change in purchases. There is little doubt that a change in price will change demand, however the target audience is very finite and a finite customer base means an inelastic price. That is, a change in sales price doesn't have much change on number of purchases. This means that halving the price may increase sales by 25%, meaning a total loss of 25% in profit.
It's like Microsoft Windows, why don't they charge $10 for it? They would sell hundreds of thousands more coppies. They don't do it because they would make less total profit than selling fewer coppies at a higher purchase price.
Anyway - that's getting away from the point.
I absolutely agree that a "Home Edition" is required, like Wolfram Mathematica, and if this were at a cheaper price the sales would undoubtedly increase. I would like to see a basic feature Mathcad available for people to use to learn mathematics (school children), and even for purposes such as your.
However, I don't think this will ever be the most profitable market.
I would also like to see students getting coppies for free while they are studying. These are the people who will dictate sales in later years.
Philip
___________________
Nobody can hear you scream in Euclidean space.
