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Author Topic: Upgrade prices going up  (Read 5357 times)

Rhossydd

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Upgrade prices going up
« on: January 06, 2021, 11:42:28 am »

Just had an email from Phase one that upgrade costs are increasing from 11/1/21 by 25%
"A Capture One Pro upgrade will be updated from £159 to £199*,"

No thanks. There's not enough worth having in 21 over 20.
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Malcolm Payne

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2021, 11:56:21 am »

I had a similar email about forthcoming price increases stating that "the prices for Capture One for Fujifilm, Capture One (for Sony) and Capture One for Nikon are in the process of being updated to bring them in line with Capture One Pro. This is to better reflect that these products all offer the same complete set of professional tools and features."

And so it begins ...

In my case it didn't say anything about Capture One Pro specifically, other than that I wouldn't be affected as I had already upgraded to v21.
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IanSeward

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2021, 05:57:31 am »

I had a similar email about forthcoming price increases stating that "the prices for Capture One for Fujifilm, Capture One (for Sony) and Capture One for Nikon are in the process of being updated to bring them in line with Capture One Pro. This is to better reflect that these products all offer the same complete set of professional tools and features."

And so it begins ...

In my case it didn't say anything about Capture One Pro specifically, other than that I wouldn't be affected as I had already upgraded to v21.

Yes, perhaps I should have taken the V21 launch offer upgrade, certainly looks more attractive now :-(
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Rhossydd

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2021, 06:03:08 am »

Yes, perhaps I should have taken the V21 launch offer upgrade, certainly looks more attractive now :-(
However the product you considered buying hasn't changed. If the upgrade wasn't worth £120 last month, it's still not worth £159 now or £199 in two weeks time.
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ihv

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2021, 12:50:22 pm »

Looking at all the marketing cannons with loud bangs and counting the new features (barely at a .-level release worthiness for me), I think the C1 product investment balance is not exactly right.
Not angry or anything, fair enough if it works. Personally though I prefer the product doing the speaking.
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ronaldnztan

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2021, 11:49:21 am »

I'm still on v12 and for me, the upgrade to v21 is 199 USD. I for one join with everyone that I do NOT like the "new software entity that is Capture One Pro." As the same time, I recalled years and years ago, when C1PRO was 3.7.8, I dropped 499 USD on the software and it was the best decision photography business related purchase.

Part of me feels that AS LONG AS they continue to deliver professional color results that "just look right out of the box," I still wholeheartedly recommend the software.
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stevebri

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2021, 07:00:34 am »

As I touched on in another post, its all about the monthly's...
C1 don't want to do an Adobe and drop the perpetual license... but they may as well have done because buying the license, then paying £159/£199 a year in addition makes it more costly than subscribing.

All the suits have been on this monthly subscription for years, Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon, Sky etc... its great for them, guaranteed income every month, everyone loves that.  I even had a so called photography agent try to sign me up... monthly...!!!   I explained that it was good for him as he can pay his rent and staff every month, but bad for me... he won't have the hunger to land me a job etc.

Looking at C1/Phase 1 as a company since Covid...  they must be in trouble... rushed, weak and over hyped upgrades to garner yet more from us (we've not exactly been 'coining it' since March 2020) its evidence that some non photo suits have come in and said something like 'cut this, don't invest in that, go for this market...our research says...'  Its what banks do when things get tight.

A true story to end with...
A person i know personally had created a very strong and profitable series of books... many titles and these books sold consistently all over the world.
He latest 'banker' comes in one day and says... 'get rid of all these titles, they are your weakest... they don't make money, they lose you money...'

She being quite direct, told him where to get off she later sold her company for many, many millions.

The point of the story is this, roughly 20% of your stock/titles/products/services make about 80% of your money, my small fine art sales bear this out, your too probably.

Any 'banker' that starts telling how to place yourself in the market by culling off your less popular items is very inexperienced, my friend's company was and is THE major player in this type of book and because she has so many titles, you trust that brand when you are looking yourself...  If she had only 20 or 30% at stock, she would simply blend in with the rest...

I think Phase/Capture One is, like a lot of people struggling and they have to trim their sails a bit but over hyped, expensive upgrades won't work, short term or long term.

So keep versions 12, 20 etc and Lightroom close at hand...

S
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Ray Harrison

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2021, 07:49:04 am »

Yeah - they're a (fairly) small company owned by an investment firm. Investment firms are rarely "product thinkers". Instead, they're usually just looking for a profitable exit strategy to sell on to the next investor. A lot of the recent moves, to me anyway, seem driven by the investment firm's accountants and perhaps an extremely poor marketing department (if they even have one).
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Rhossydd

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2021, 09:20:27 am »

From where I sit it looks like Phase may have difficulties getting ordinary people to upgrade CO unless they start introducing some significant additions.
I'm sure that the improvements in editing speed will have kept their professional users happy and they're less price sensitive for regular upgrades.
For the hobbyists we need to see significant features added to make it worth the money to upgrade. Whilst CO is an excellent mature raw converter it still lags behind in additional features, multiple frame HDR blending, panorama stitching, web gallery creation and good DAM facilities are either missing or not sufficiently well implemented.
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Malcolm Payne

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2021, 06:53:56 am »

It appears that, along with yesterday's price increases, C1 have now reinstated the second seat for the perpetual license branded versions that was removed in late November with the v21 release. I have no idea what the situation is with the full Pro version, whether that is now back up to 3 seats again for new purchasers of v21 or remains at the reduced November licensing of 2 seats. Hilariously, they are claiming the 'increased' number of seats as one justification for the price increase, after merely restoring what they removed only two months ago.

While no doubt the change of heart on licensing will be welcomed, the whole v21 launch and pricing update demonstrates a complete lack of clarity of thinking, if not contempt for their customers.

I still like and enjoy using the software; the Company, not so much these days.
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kers

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2021, 07:15:49 am »

Looking at buying v21 for Nikon it has gone up from 149,- to 229,- €
UP 50% (!)
In a way it makes it easier for me not being tempted to buy it.
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Pieter Kers
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Rhossydd

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2021, 10:21:58 am »

Not gone down at all well on DPReview, looking at the comments I'd worry if I were working for Phase One.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/4207292645/some-versions-of-capture-one-are-now-more-expensive
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Ferp

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2021, 06:21:53 pm »

If I were C1 I'd be more concerned about Thom Hogan's views, given his influence:

https://bythom.com/newsviews/capture-one-pricing.html

That said, I can't imagine that C1 expected to win any popularity contests with these price increases. 

My views align with Hogan's.  The way that pricing has varied over the last month or two has not been reasonable.  I regard it as disrespectful.  It's going to hurt customer loyalty.  Might actually make Adobe look good.
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Rhossydd

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2021, 05:10:30 am »

The way that pricing has varied over the last month or two has not been reasonable.
Indeed. I wonder if it's all a reaction to a lack of uptake in the upgrade ? You expect everyone to jump, but when they don't you try any strategy to get their money.
Money's tight for many people in the middle of the pandemic, so any expenditure gets looked at more carefully than ever. The lacklustre upgrade won't have helped convince many to get their credit cards out.

Affinity took a different approach and halved their prices for most of the first lockdown in the UK, I'm sure that will result in more users and greater loyalty. A lesson there.
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Ferp

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2021, 06:11:08 pm »

Indeed. I wonder if it's all a reaction to a lack of uptake in the upgrade ? You expect everyone to jump, but when they don't you try any strategy to get their money.

That was my assessment as well.  First they try and bribe us with discounts that got bigger and bigger, and then they switch to threatening us with price increases.  Doesn't change the fact that a weak upgrade is still a weak upgrade.

Agree about the Affinity approach.
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stevebri

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2021, 01:44:26 am »

I have been swapping emails with the C1 support team over technical issues, I raised the whole ‘seat’ thing and was told ‘existing customers would keep their number of seats with this upgrade’.

I’ve never been into buying the latest and greatest kit or software but one good thing to come out of all of this, for me at least, is that I don’t need anything new... at all, I don’t need anything.

Pictures taken with a P45+, or a D810, using C1 12 or 20 or LR 6.1 (the last perpetual) printed using an Epson 9880 ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING...!

If they are not, it’s my fault, not the kit or it’s age....

With the pandemic.... it focuses the mind to use what we have and spend some time travelling if and when we can return to that....
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Rhossydd

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2021, 05:26:09 am »

I don’t need anything new... at all, I don’t need anything.
and that's their problem, the market has plateaued and matured.

To continue to generate revenue they need to give us what we want or sell more widely by reducing price.


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kers

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2021, 06:36:31 am »

Maybe P1 was looking for the 'right ' price, for maximizing gains.
By making offers like 25% off they came to the conclusion that not many more people would buy it because of lowering the price.
So now they set the price up for they think that people that really want to have it buy it anyway.
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Pieter Kers
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ZoeSanderson

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #18 on: December 15, 2021, 05:36:59 am »

Many equities are currently rising in value ahead of the holidays. I'm not sure why, but I'm noticing a cyclical tendency in this region. To be honest, I work with robots occasionally and don't pay attention to their algorithms. I have a base at https://forexstore.com/fxcipher where the entire summary of transactions is displayed. I used to trade forex using robots, but either the Fibonacci numbers failed me or I didn't work well with the coefficients. I enjoy how everyone is transitioning to bitcoin and how many people recognize that cryptocurrency servers are the future. It's worth it just for the mining. Overall, anticipate interest rates to fall and investment to rise.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2021, 12:33:12 pm by ZoeSanderson »
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stevebri

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Re: Upgrade prices going up
« Reply #19 on: December 23, 2021, 10:59:56 am »

This thread was started almost a year ago... and here we are

Dec 21... I get an email with 'get 20% off' making my 'upgrade from C1 20 £199 in the UK (perpetual).

Dec 21... B&H is selling it with 30% off for a new license, at $209USd, which is roughly £155 in the UK...

The message I get from C1 is this 'loyal customers we don't care about you.... new customers get 'come on over... we love you..'.

Interestingly in the UK/EU right now there is a new law coming in, or has become law stating in essence that you cannot offer 'newbie' deals and not offer the same deal to existing clients.  this is mainly aimed at tv/internet companies but is applied across the consumer market...

Not sure the teenagers at C1 are aware of this...

S
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