1) Phase offered any user of version 3 a free upgrade to version 4. This means there are people who purchased up to 2005 and have not paid a dime in upgrades since then and are still current.
Longer than that. V3.1.2 was released in 2004. I know I was using it in 2003. This is not just a long time, but way too long. Phase got too comfortable and delayed a replacement for v3. Then after announcing it (finally) they missed release dates again and again. This went on for a really long time.
I'm sorry this happened and wish it hadn't, but it seems inauthentic to look back at this train wreck and say that it was a value-added feature for the customers. This is simply another example of Phase not getting software development.
2) Every new camera has been supported by free releases.
As opposed to not supporting their cameras? I'd much prefer a paid 3rd party camera update model, if (!) it would assure timely upgrades/updates that don't remove critical functionality.
3) When Phase released version 4 they also established a price of $100 to upgrade to version 5 whenever it is released. This is 20% of the price at which C1 3 was sold and 25% of the price which C1 4 is being sold at.
This is a great policy. Much better than that "buy now and upgrade for free next time" nonsense.
4) Capture One is free for anyone using Phase One backs
Name me another piece of paid software that comes anywhere close to the pricing structure of those four points.
As a benchmark Photoshop CS2 was released in 2005 and nobody would say Adobe would be unfair to charge 25% of the original 2005 software price to upgrade to CS4/CS5 and should have been giving you free file compatibility with any newly released camera since then.
But this compares Phase's stated intent to Adobe's actual practice. The problem is that Phase's intent lacks integrity, because they are not delivering a real v4. Instead we have a mishmash of features with a new UI that struggles to do what it was designed to do as well as v3: capture digital images. Roll the clock back and things look a lot more realistic. Let's pretend that v4.8 was released as v4 beta3 or release candidate. Now everything makes more sense. They just added keyboard control of text boxes and languages to the UI, capturing is relatively stable and you can now batch rename your files (yay!). It's still missing some good stuff, but this should all be addressed in a 4.0.x or 4.1 update (at latest).
But of course, this is not where we are. Instead we are at v4.8! This build series is almost toast and v5 should now be well into alpha testing. Again, before v4.5 this app was all buy unusable.
It's also worth mentioning that Adobe ships Bridge with Photoshop for free, because they realize the needs of today's photographers.
For the vast majority of users the few V3 features not yet implement in V4 are far outweighed by the benefits of V4.
Debatable. What if what you really want to do is capture pictures with
Capture One? What percentage of capture companies/techs use v4 to capture? Running v3 and v4 to capture and post is nothing more than a kludge. Perfectly acceptable in beta phase, but never for a shipping paid app like this.
I really don't understand why Phase promised a free upgrade to subsequent versions and I wish they hadn't. It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong about this, granted. But it seems it would make for a lackluster revenue spike at release. Much better is the policy of set upgrade pricing, so customers are aware and can plan. The problem is that Phase made this commitment, but are not living up to it. Plus (and this applies to your pricing comparison points too) it's important to remember that Phase One made this pricing structure! It's not like someone forced them to devalue their upgrades to the point that they can't afford to update in a timely manner. They invented it. All I'm saying is that they should now stick to it.
