Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Just noticed this thread discussing Qimage Ultimate.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=35878372

What a load of rubbish!
No one seems to grumble on DP about those really expensive programs that charge huge amounts for upgrades. Also, it's not true that existing users are not supported, Mike has made that quite clear.
I can't join DP forums as they don't like Yahoo addresses; I hope someone from here puts that guy right - and why doesn't he post here, is he just a stirrer?
I'm into Ultimate already, I particularly appreciate the exif data transfer and the new (extra) white balance adjustment.
The pop-out print size box size box just take a little getting used to, but it works very well.
Terry

Terry,
Some people just don't get it.
This is win/win
Anyone that bought Studio in the past has already got his money's worth of value.
Mike made provision for very recent purchases to get some compensation, but no one lost.

All the versions (LPS) still get lifetime upgrades of camera raw and bug fixes for lifetime.
The Ultimate is the new Qimage with a totally new approach to working on RAW images.
It will be sold with a year of free upgrades and updates adding new innovations and features as they become developed.

Mike has earned his reputation over the past 12 years as being the shining example of what a software developer should be.
Anyone that has spent a dime with ddisoftware has never regretted any purchase for a moment.

I think much of the silliness will abate after people sit down and read the information that Mike provided as well as what they get for the price.

Oh that White Balance slider and dropper in REFINE is unreal to use.!!

Fred

I replied to that thread with some personal thoughts but from a business perspective.  Hopefully it will throw some light on the subject and hopefully it is seen as tactful.  If not, there will always be some who grumble.  I've spent far too long at the impossible task of trying to make everyone happy and it's time to move forward and face reality of doing business.  Apple is still selling a defective (and marginally innovative) product in the iPhone 4 and people are still eating it up.  Perhaps they have faith in Apple.  I think the vast majority of my customers have faith in me too... and my product isn't even defective!  ;)  Anyway, my response on dpreview is the only response that I plan to make, but it might be worth a read for those interested in my "deepest thoughts".  :D

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=35881442

Mike

I'm not a member of dpreview forums, but read the posts. I think most of them are quite valid. They are folks opinions, each person having there own priorities wrt cash expenditure, photography, etc. The most useful customer, is one who complains. I think there is a feeling of 'betrayal/broken promises' wrt the apparent change in direction of updates, etc., even if it is not so.

fwiw, I uninstalled the ultimate demo this morning - it offers little advantage wrt printing over the studio edition for me, and I didn't want to get confused by the slightly improved gui. If Mike fixes the remaining studio bugs, then that will be fine for me, and many others. Of course, if he only fixes them in the 'ultimate version', then that will be something else. I can see trying to maintain four versions of basically the same software will eventually be a real pita. Personally, I am not interested in new features wrt raw/editing, and similar, I'm more interested in reliability, consistency, and simplicity/conformity of the printing interface.

Best wishes,

Ray

Like you say, everyone is going to have an opinion.  I in turn feel betrayed by customers who would call themselves "a loyal customer of many years", yet they not only expect what they bought to be free, but also everything I do from that point forward.  And what are they "loyal" for?  They "loyally" downloaded every version I offered for the past 10 years... for free?  They mentioned me on some forum (they like the software, why wouldn't they)?  They identified a bug (which I fixed in 8 hours) or they gave me an idea for a new feature (which I implemented and they are now using to their benefit)?  I'm sorry, but the real loyalty is with me and my company toward my customers and no, I am certainly not ashamed to say it!  The real problem is the pampering over the years and the fact that I've never taken a bold step to say "wait a minute... this isn't Qimage any more!"  Most people I think are just expressing an opinion and it's even usually one that I understand.  In a (very) few though, there's a sense of entitlement these days that is really quite ridiculous.  They think they can dictate the course of your business indefinitely because they paid 50 bucks in 2001.  This is a new product and just as you said, if it doesn't fit the bill for you, don't buy it!

Mike

Do you think that the priority for enhancements to Ultimate will be Raw, etc. and not so much the printing? I am just as reliant on Qimage to print as I am on Photoshop to edit and enhance. I may find the other capabilities useful, but for me printing is the deal breaker at this point in time. If enhancements would continue for printing I would be more inclined to jump into Ultimate sooner rather than later. I may change may mind after experimenting with the Raw capabilities.

Andy

Andy,
I happen to one who knows Mike for a long time, and I can assure you that there will be no better printing program or printing routine ever.
Mike is top of the line when it comes to digital printing, and his weight of effort will be channeled into Ultimate.
His enhancements into the realm of Raw editing will be in Ultimate.
You cannot go wrong.

Best to you and hope you can be part of the growth and perfection of Q/Ultimate.

Fred

Unbelievable.  I have actually been wondering how Mike and Qimage have survived financially this long. So for me this is good news. If spending $90 plus a nominal annual fee assures me continued attention to improving and supporting Qimage, it's still a bargain.  And Mike hasn't abandoned anybody. If you have one of the other Qimages, you can still keep it forever and never pay him another cent. I will dork around with the demo for a few days and then buy Qimage ultimate.  And where else can you get the kind of support with individual attention to questions, fixes, and feature requests.  - Mel W.  Columbia Md.

I fear I haven't done as well as I could on the explanation of what the future holds for Qimage versus Qimage Ultimate.  I think the biggest fear among users is that Qimage is dead and Qimage Ultimate is the "new thing".  That's not the plan but I think people might think that due to my inability to really explain the business plan in a small space.  I'll try to update the web page with better info on that in the next day or so.  In the mean time I'll do the best I can here.  I'm trying not to over complicate so here it is put as simply as I can word it at the moment...

We recently did a business review of where we've been, where we are now, and where we want to be in the future as ddisoftware, Inc..  It soon became apparent that we could not continue with an "open ended" plan like Qimage where everyone expects everything we do to be provided for free regardless of how much it differs from the original concept.  The conclusion among the panel (and yes, this involved much more than just me and my say) was that "Qimage" had become known as a catch-all for everything we do at ddisoftware and in no way did it represent the product that we introduced in 1998 with free lifetime upgrades nor even the product of three years ago.  It was also obvious that we needed a more sustainable plan because we (ok, that one is mainly I) wanted to move faster and do more to stay competitive.  The market is a much different place now.  The only way to do that was to define Qimage as, well, basically what it is in Lite, Pro, and Studio and design a different product with a much different update approach where we have a platform to move forward without the limitations of the "Qimage umbrella".  Only problem was, I wanted to keep the Qimage name as it is a recognized entity in the industry.

So here we are with Qimage Ultimate.  It's a new product that has a whole new approach to development.  I'm still the lead programmer but we do have other programmers contributing now, speeding up development but also obviously draining more resources at the same time.  Qimage Ultimate will be on a faster development cycle than you have seen before with Qimage, yet Qimage LPS (Lite, Pro, and Studio) will remain active and will continue to be updated to keep with current technology.  That means that Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio will get updates to support new cameras, updates to keep pace with new operating systems, printers, and so on.  This ensures that the product you bought will be around for a long time.  As you know, we are one of the first companies to support new MS operating systems and that will continue in both Qimage and Qimage Ultimate!  That said, most of the new innovations will happen in Qimage Ultimate and a few of them will likely make it to Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio as well, particularly those that "fit" well into the coding structure of both programs.  For example, if we find a way to bolster print quality, you'll see that first in Qimage Ultimate and if we decide that code is easily adapted into Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio it will likely go there as well because it doesn't involve adding new features and expanding the product functionality.  It would, however, strengthen the Lite, Pro, and Studio products in that they will do what they do now, only better.  And that's what we want.

That's the best way I can figure to explain it right now.  Simply put, we will continue to make Lite, Pro, and Studio a strong and reliable product with needed updates but we don't plan to expand its features to cover new ground.  That will be done in Qimage Ultimate.  As to our users, it makes it pretty simple to decide.  If you are happy with what Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio do as far as features and UI, there is little incentive to move to Qimage Ultimate.  We feel a lot of customers want to move forward with a bold new product that will break new ground in multiple areas as far as simplicity (UI) and functionality.  That, in a nutshell, is Qimage Ultimate.

Mike

as a retired software developer/vendor, i am glad mike has changed his philosophy/policy. it only makes sense, frankly i was waiting for this change for a long time. the prices and the upgrade/upkeep are reasonable but when u give something for free for a long time it is very hard to change. if the policy still has room for some change, i would add an upgrade period/discount price to move people over from the old train. ddisoftware/ mike are really at fault here for doing it wrong for such a long time






ps
we charged 18% to 25% a yr for support and it did not include any product upgrades. discount on new products were negotiable. our client were corporate a little different than qiamage but none the less we were in to make money. we went from 12 to a 1000!

Hi Mike,

As a Qimage Studio user for a couple of years now I want to give my feedback as well:

I have no problem with the yearly maintenance fee. I, too, was feeling that a free upgrade forever policy is not sustainable and I would be happy to pay a bit for keeping current and development active. While the maintenance fee is on the high end of what seems to be usual with the competition when seen as % of purchase cost, $20 a year is cheap enough that I would not think twice about paying it.

What rubs me really the wrong way is the non-existing upgrade path for existing users. While it is certainly true that I got my money’s worth, it just does not feel right to me. The whole thing is certainly more of a marketing and psychological matter, than a purely rational one. As a long term customer I simply do not feel appreciated.

And the fact for me is: Like others, I use Qimage for printing. But since Lightroom 3 is finally up to speed in this area, I use it for most of my standard printing tasks. So Qimage got less and less use recently, although I still may use it on occasion when the quality difference is noticeable.

If there would have been a good upgrade deal, say 50% off for existing users, I would have updated yesterday, right after getting the announcement without thinking twice; if only to support the developer and stay on the cutting edge. That was the reason I got the Studio edition as well. For my needs one of the cheaper versions would have been fine, but I wanted to support the development and the price differential was cheap enough for me to get the top tier version.

But now that I’m treated like a first-time customer, I’m in turn going to treat this like a new purchase instead of an update. And when I evaluate the program under this premise, it does not seem to be a useful product for my needs. So I’m not going to buy it.

I think you are making a mistake by not offering an incentive for your existing customers to upgrade. Avoiding the risk of many of them feeling unappreciated alone seems to be worth it to me. I also think financially this would make sense as the higher number of people upgrading would, in my opinion, probably make up for the discounted rate. And a lot of these upgrade customers would probably pay the maintenance fee after the first year, so the broader customer base would help in the long run even more. But then again I’m no expert in these matters.

I’m wishing you all the best and that your business plan works out for you. If you ever change you mind and decide on a special upgrade sale for existing users, let us know.

Best regards,
Marc

That is exactly how you should be looking at this!  You are a first time customer of this brand new product.  Qimage is no longer an open ended project where everyone gets everything we ever decide to do for free.  Qimage is a well defined (and unbelievably feature rich) photo printing application.  It will continue to be updated from a performance and compatibility standpoint, getting all the needed updates for new cameras, drivers, and operating systems, and even a few baseline innovations that bolster things like print quality.  It's time to admit that "Qimage" is not a catch-all term for all future work done at ddisoftware.  At some point, we need to get paid for our NEW work, else you won't have Qimage anything!  No one guaranteed (nor should they have even thought) that all new features related to photo printing or batch processing must go into Qimage, for free, and not a new product.  That's simply unreasonable.  So Qimage won't get the new features or innovations: it'll just continue to be improved in the realm of what it does now.  Qimage Ultimate gets the new stuff because it is a NEW product.

And let's talk about "unappreciated" for a moment.  You feel unappreciated?  Step into another mans shoes for a moment: mine to be specific.  I've supported customers for 12 years, providing free updates, stellar support, and even help in areas not Qimage: I've been known to help people with camera/printer decisions personally, not just in the helpful articles here, and even with other programs!  I've taken many suggestions and implemented them, fixed bugs in a matter of hours, and until recently, resent unlock codes for free sometimes up to a dozen times in one year for one customer when they are too lazy to save their own registration information.  I've helped people diagnose bugs in OTHER software like Adobe products, video drivers, printer drivers, problems with anti-virus programs, and have seen them through MANY operating system upgrades where most other companies would have left you high and dry.  Even WITH lifetime upgrades, most companies would have stopped at Vista saying "We're sorry, this product has reached the end of its useful life (hence no more LIFEtime upgrades) and we have no plans to update it for Vista support.  We'd be glad to sell you this new product that IS compatible, however..."  And then... they would do it again for Windows 7!

So now we have a vocal few (customers) who have obtained years of support and hundreds of free bug fixes and brand new features, yet when we come out with Qimage Ultimate, they say "You can't do that!  You can't come out with a new product!".  I think some people are just so spoiled that a dose of reality is way past due!  Did people storm Adobe headquarters when they came out with Lightroom, saying "That should have been a part of Photoshop Camera Raw"?  Did Adobe give you 50% off Lightroom just because you owned Photoshop?  And they don't even provide real support!  I realize that people have come to expect more of me than they would say, Adobe, but some of the expectations are grossly unreasonable... and they have been for quite some time.  Qimage Ultimate is how we attain a sustainable business model at ddisoftware.  In this economy, I think most people will be happy to see that.  The alternative is, you wake up one morning and find that there IS no more ddisoftware, and no more Qimage.

Mike

If you had named it something else you probably wouldn't have to be discussing this. Something like "DDI Ultimate" or whatever but I know you wanted to keep the Qimage name. I was more concerned that you would sell Qimage to a large software company and then who knows what direction the product would go in. Were you thinking of publishing a priority list of first year enhancements you were planning to add to Ultimate?

Andy

Sorry, I just can't let this pass...

re: "but some of the expectations are grossly unreasonable... and they have been for quite some time"

It seems to me that you, Mike, are the one who set up these expectations. I bought the product with the promise of free, lifetime upgrades. So please, don't accuse me of "grossly unreasonable" expectations - I expect to receive what I purchased and to this point I have.

re: "And let's talk about "unappreciated" for a moment.  You feel unappreciated?  Step into another mans shoes for a moment: mine to be specific.  I've supported customers for 12 years, providing free updates, stellar support, and even help in areas not Qimage...."

Again, YOU are the one who sold the product with the promise of unlimited upgrades forever for free. You're acting like you gave us a gift and now want one in return. Sorry - that's not how it works. I purchased a product with a guarantee, it wasn't given to me. So quit whining -- it's unprofessional...

As for the new product, I certainly agree that you have the right to offer it as a stand-alone program, apparently not related to the Qimage promise of free upgrades and charge whatever you wish for both the program and updates. I think I would have named it something other that Qimage Ultimate to avoid just what we are talking about at this point but that's your choice. I'll be giving it a try, but if the RAW conversion can't hold up to what I get with Nikon Capture NX2 , I won't be buying. FWIW, had I been given a 50% off deal, I probably would have upgraded without looking. I bought Qimage primarily as a printing program and have been very pleased with it. Features for editing and RAW conversion are just icing on the cake but we all know cake can be eaten without icing.

It seems that I may have failed to make my point clear: As I wrote, I have no problem with the new business model. I would happily pay an appropriately discounted “upgrade price” for the new product and the yearly “maintenance fee” precisely for the reasons that I understand the need for your business to make money.


While I don’t doubt that you did this and I commend you for it, I personally have never contacted you for customer support. The reason is, of course, that I have not had any issues with the software that I couldn’t solve myself, which speaks for the quality of your program.


Well, since you brought it up: When Lightroom 1 was first introduced it was heavily discounted compared to the current price – no doubt to get a bigger user base installed fast. And since its introduction I paid for 2 updates. I got Photoshop for half its usual price as an “Upsell” from Photoshop Elements which was installed on my computer when I got it. I probably would not have gotten Photoshop for its full price, but for half it was something I could (barely) justify. And I subsequently paid for an update as well. I’m not saying this is how it is supposed to be done. But because of policies like these, Adobe got much more money from me personally than they would have without.

To make it clear, my main point was: A reasonable incentive for your existing customers to upgrade to the new program may be financially beneficial for you, as this may convince more people to pay for the new program (albeit less) and pay the yearly fee from the 2nd year on. The question is not whether they got their money’s worth out of their original Qimage purchase, but rather whether YOU get your money’s worth by not broadening you installed user base.

Anyway, I have tried to let you know how I see this issue and why I won’t get the new program right now. I would assume that this is useful information for a business to get. I certainly don’t want to tell you what you can or can’t do or how to run your business.

And I absolutely did not mean to imply that I expect the features of the new version for free!

I wish you all the best.

Marc

I will spend more this year on light magenta cartridges for my Epson 2200 than what I will spend to buy Qimage Ultimate. I appreciate the respectful way in whcih Marc has tried to make a business case for what he is saying (rather than a rant), but guess I will repeat what I have said in other forums about Qimage. 

Functionally, Qimage is one of three equal pillars in my serious photographic avocation.  Those pillars are: 1 - Camera, lenses, flash, lighting - total investment about $4500, 2 - Computer, printer(s), peripherals - total investment about $3500, 3 - Qimage - Total Investment - less than $200 - even after I buy Ultimate.  Enough said about that.  And my annual expenses for all of the above - for paper and ink - the maintenace fee for Qimage Ultimate wont even be noticed.  I guess I think that this profile may be typical of many Qimage users, so don't understand the complaining.

(Full disclosure - I don't know MIke but have spent my life as a software develoment professional - albeit in a totally different domain than this - and certainly understand the realities of what Mike is facing.)

Mel W. Columbia, Md.

Well, reading this and the discussion on dpreview has inspired me to finally upgrade from Pro to Studio QI.  I had been wanting to the past few months, but holding out as I don't do RAW - just wanted the better interpolation and faster processing w/quad core.  I can see now I won't be interested in the new features of Ultimate and want Studio as it will be seamless transition from Pro.  So I'll put in my $30 support as an upgrade.

You're missing the point: that's not what is happening.  For about the 20th time, the product you purchased is still being supported and updated.  The issue here is that a few people think they can dictate what type of products we produce and they want to prohibit us from making a new product and they insist we offer everything in Qimage... for free.  That's what is unreasonable!

Mike

Hi Alex,
That was me  up until 3 years ago when Qimage started having the ability to convert raw files. Initially it was not that sophisticated and I bought SilkyPix.
Within 15 months SP was abandoned and since then Qimage has been my preferred raw processing program.
You can get so much more from your images when shooting in raw and Qimage makes it very easy to to process them. I would recommend using raw, assuming your camera can do it, and change your mind quickly to get Ultimate ;)
I suspect Qimage Ultimate will make great strides on all fronts; printing, editing & raw, in the next year and beyond, so signing up for Q-U for is backing a winner I think.  8)
Terry

Terry,  I use Capture One for RAW and have for years, so I have a very long back catalog of images that are ready to print.  I also do lens correction  (PTlens) on 50% of them, which I don't see possible in Qimage.
So it will be Studio for me.  Can't justify the higher cost of Ulitmate.

Let's put this into perspective by using a simile:

Adobe offers Photoshop and then comes up with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom [official name!], now, are former [legal] Adobe Photoshop users entitled to a special offer of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? Actually, are they entitled to get any other major Adobe product cheaper or even for free?*

Instead of wasting ones own - oh so precious time - complaining about a reasonable marketing decision by a company one could give the software a test run, then decide if one wants or needs it. How much is the initial licence fee for QIU in working hours, three quarters, one, one and a half?


*On a side note, I am even unable to upgrade from, say, Creative Suite 3 Premium to Photoshop for an upgrade price if I don't need/want to upgrade all the other products in the Premium Suite.

Same here.  Have wondered many times how much longer things could go on as they were.  Full speed ahead, Mike.

Well, I have to agree with Ray as to the general usefulness (to me) of another editing program.  Especially, a RAW converter.  I got into QImage as simply the best program for printing that is out there.  I still feel that way.  As a "loyal" customer I upgraded to Studio after that. 

As to dpreview, I don't have much use for those comments either way.  For the most part I have always found it to be lambasted with complainers and those giving advise about things they know little or nothing about.  It's a perfect blind leading the blind forum in many ways.  Here, at least, we get to the bottom of most issues.

I have said the following before, but I'll reiterate:  Mike told me several times, years ago, that QI is a printing program.  The editing part was for tweaking.  That was in response to feature requests.  Then it became a RAW converter for many and "the only editing program you need" for others.  That is all well and good for those that get buy without other options.  And, I hold no grudge since they know how and what they want their end product to look like.

HOWEVER, Mike, I too do not know how you kept "free upgrades for life" this long.  In a constant new sales atmosphere that would work.  As the market gets saturated and the income falls off, things change.  That being said, you were the one that said "free for life" and set the policy.  You made a contract with a lot of people that way.  To question their expectations that you would fulfill your promise or state they got their money's worth out of you just seems wrong.

I, like others, will stay with Studio for obvious reasons.  It's the best printing software going.  I have LR3, but find it totally cumbersome, so don't use it for much at all (I get it free, so am not complaining).  However, CS5 with its new features make photographic things possible that were never there.  Adding the new panorama and HDR upgrades along with content-aware brushes add a new dynamic to all of it. 

The other thing I don't understand here is how those that said and said that Studio is "all you ever need" to totally prepare a photograph for printing can now say that Ultimate is everything.  They all ready had everything.  Sorry, I couldn't let that pass.

Seth

I don't think that's quite the same thing.  From what I've read here, QU is essentially QS with a fresh GUI and some new features.  Lightroom is not Photoshop with a fresh GUI and some new features.  There are hundreds of things Photoshop can do that Lightroom cannot and dozens of things Lightroom can do that Photoshop cannot.  Lightroom and Photoshop are truly different tools.  QU and QS, not so much.

I don't have a problem at all with QU and it's pricing.  Like Marc though, I do think more existing customers would make the QU move if there were a significant discount.  I think that's a given.  But that obviously is not one of Mike's objectives - I mean getting people to make the move with an incentive is not Mike's objective.  I think Mike wants people to make the move on the merits of QU alone.  Quite understandable.

There are some people, like me, that would like to give Mike more money because we think it's fair but have no avenue except QU at $90.  I would rather sign up for a $20 QS subscription.  Granted, I haven't yet tried QU so my opinion may change.

Just voicing an opinion.  It's not a big deal either way to me.

Leroy

I do not have an issue with selling new software and defining a new business model - it makes sense to me.

I agree with Andy, however, that the choice of "Qimage Ultimate" for the name of the new software is unfortunate (in that it appears to generate confusion). It does not sound "new." We have Qimage Pro, Qimage Studio, Qimage Ultimate... Sounds like flavors of the same software rather than a new distinctly different software program.

Ted

You are correct.  They may have been what initially irked me too.  When I got the e-mail I went "WHAT???"  Something (based on what they are doing) like RAW Lightning may have been better.

Throwing my own 2 cents in.  I don't have any problem with Mike introducing a new product model with a renewal subscription.  The way I view the issue with Ultimate however is that if I compare the features list with QImage Studio - it's identical except that some features are faster and Flashpipe has been added to it (if I wanted Flashpipe features I would already own it).  The retention of EXIF info from RAW to jpeg/tiff is new but not a major improvement.  There just does not seem to be a major differentation of features between Studio and Ultimate to view it as a new  and separate product; additionally, it is not like that if I bought the Ultimate edition that I would still use the Studio edition.  The 2 products may be substantively different in fact but not in the information provided on Mike's QImage homepage.  

I'm sure that Mike will make significant changes such that the 2 products, Ultimate and Studio editions, will be substantively different this time next year.  But the question is "Why should I buy a new product NOW that does essentially the same thing as products I already have?"  For future new features which I don't know and not sure if I want since Mike hasn't disclosed what new features he plans on adding?  Users of Lite and Pro will not change otherwise they would have gotten the Studio edition.  For the Studio owners, if they wanted Flashpipe, it's only $20 more and they probably already have it or it doesn't mean much to them.  

Mike, I understand why you don't want to provide an "upgrade" path since there is now an annual fee and there would be bitching and complaining about free upgrades for life and a "loyalty" discount also has connotations but, at least for the first year or two, there should be a scaled path to change products in order to induce current customers to change now rather than a couple of years from now when their needs change.
 
As a point of information, I bought the Pro version in 2006 which had RAW support and upgraded later to Studio for $40 more so there has not been as large a change history as from 1998 to 2006 of features added that I can say that I got upgraded for free.  So my base product was higher and most of the discussion of what I got if I bought QImage in the beginning leaves me cold.

Since I launched this thread, let me define my position...

I'm one of the many who uses Qimage for printing only, not raw editing or anything else.  I feel I've got my money's worth with a fine product.  I have no interest in changing my workflow so all this discussion about Qimage Ultimate or Studio is irrelevant to me.  If my Qimage Pro software stopped working today, I'd miss it, but I'd just go back to printing from Photoshop.

I support Mike in making some difficult business decisions.

This was bound to happen eventually. This isn't the only product I've bought with free upgrades for life either. I think this is about as classy a way of solving the problem as possible. Those that don't want to shell out for a new copy aren't being forced to do so, Mike's holding up his end. But if you want the what will surely be significant advantages to the ultimate edition you'll have to pay.

Redchairsoftware had a really good product in notmad which ultimately seems to have stalled out as they never resolved the issue of new purchases and then became irrelevant. Which is not something which anybody really wants to happen to Qimage.

That being said, it was perhaps in poor judgment to launch so soon with so very little in the way of additional features. Considering the lack of difference between the two at this juncture it might have made more sense to either delay or offer up a longer free upgrade period for the first few months to get things jump started with the yearly upgrades after that. And that many of us already have most of the functionality.

When Mike reads this he'll probably be pi**ed. I am genuinely sorry if he is as that's not the post's intention.

That said however, my belief is that he's completely failed to read and understand just how he, as an individual, has influenced the attitude and expectations of QI users. That's obvious by the fact that he's now surprised by the mixed response.

Whilst he deserves much more in terms of 'return' on his investment, my feeling is that he's mis-managed peoples expectations through failing to understand the depth of feeling that being part of the QI 'family' engenders. Being a QI user makes one a part of an extended family of which Mike was the patriarch. So, by refusing to offer the people who supported him when they did not have to (e.g. simple printing type users) an upgrade path to Ulitimate, I'm sorry to say leaves a sour taste. That taste remains no matter how it's couched, how logical it may or may not be or how new and different and exciting Ultimate may be.

Mike has always espoused different values than the rest of the software industry by dispising the 'in it for the money' approach of all the others. Because of that history, this move feels like he's kind of 'sold out'.

Further, for Mike to pass critical judgement on those who download the updates is a bit rich. If he cares to go back though a couple of thousand posts he will find many comments where, in answer to peoples issues, he encourages people to upgrade to the 'current' version. At the end of the day, Mike designed this bed we all lay in and it has gotten pretty darned comfortable. So, to suddenly criticise the fact we are comfortable in it, no matter the common sense and good hard business sense of his decision, and then suddenly to turf us out onto a cold hard floor simply hurts.

All of that said, it's Mikes company and he's a big boy. It could have been handled better but hey ho. Hopefully, this new product strategy and its associated continued revenue streams will now deliver an increased company valuation and an attractive exit strategy. Perhaps finally he'll be the millionaire he deserves to be... Just don't flog it to Adobe!

For the record:  Lightroom was free to all owners of the excellent RawShooter (which Adobe had acquired) -- I certainly did not have to pay a cent for it.

My hunch is that there would be much less unhappiness over the introduction of Ultimate (and the initial payment for it and for subsequent upgrades) if it was abundantly clear that it is in a very real sense a new product and not just a partial revamping of Studio with FlashPipe incorporated. 

A detailed side-by-side (columnar) listing of the features that the four versions of Qimage have would help, not just to convince one that Qimage Ultimate is indeed a new/different product but also to guide future purchasers of the different versions of the software. 

Perhaps such a listing already exists, in which case my apologies for suggesting that there should be one.  But my point still stands, namely, that there is likely to be much less fuss, petulance, talk of loyalty, wanting something for nothing, etc., etc., if Ultimate were clearly seen to be a new product, a sufficiently advanced to warrant acquiring and to justify a fresh payment by existing owners of Qimage and Flashpipe.

Incidentally, I will not hesitate to buy Ultimate once I am sure that it provides more/better printing features than Qimage Studio and a better interface for managing that task.  I would still prefer a version just for printing, without the clutter of (no doubt excellent) features (e.g., raw processing, which for Lightroom is much more to my liking).

I've been a Qimage Pro user for several years (even before there was a Pro) and have watched Mike take a beating anytime he tries something new.  A few years back he changed the UI and people went balistic wanting him to either revert back or offer an option to use the old one.  Mike insisted people would adapt and appreciate the new UI and we all have.  Studio came out and people complained Lite and Pro were going to short changed.  Studio is getting more updates.  Studio is getting more features.  Well people paid extra to buy Studio so they should get more.  Qimage Pro works great for me and the updates that come out are just icing on the cake for an already great product.  I've often wondered how Mike was surviving.  He must be selling to a lot of new users to keep going.

Now it's on to Ultimate.  If I pay $89 then I sure hope I get some extras.  I think what is getting Mike in trouble with Ultimate is having to keep the name Qimage in it.  Understandable due to name recognition.  If he called it XYZ things may be different as people would look at it as a new product.

I don't post here often but I could feel Mike's frustration having to continually repeat himself on why he is making the change.  In a couple months cooler heads will prevail and we can start discussing Qimage, in what ever form we have.

John

Hi Mike
I am a studio user and have printed very little over the years as the cost of home printing is too prohibitive when compared to costco and other low cost outfits .I definitely bought the program because of the superb offer of free updates and the quality of prints i was able to produce when i tried the program.I upgraded to studio as a way to support your hard work its been a number of years since i printed anything at home,however i may change and start printing more at home in the future also another reason to get the upgrade. I bought flashpipe also because i wanted to support you, i also have and was using downloader pro.So i have spent albeit a small amount of additional money with your company that i would not have spent if it weren't for your Qimage free update policy. I certainly understand and support your need to have a continual revenue from your software development we can all gain from that, and your software is reasonably priced with the added benefit of a very reasonable upgrade price. I wish you success with your new product however i will not be purchasing it at this time as i already use adobe and apple products for my Raw conversions and have been using them since their inception.I must admit i have never used studio to do a conversion but i do use flashpipe to get some jpegs for viewing purposes on a pc with acdsee as it is much quicker viewing jpegs than raw files.I will continue to support flashpipe although while on the subject i would love to see a way of stopping or canceling a transfer. I post this only for you to get an insight of reasons users have used your software, i am a fan of your imaging programs.

You can use the "esc" key on a PC to stop the transfer in Flashpipe.

I have been using Qimage for years, first Pro then Studio. I always wondered how Mike could make any money offering free upgrades year after year especially once his product saturated the market. As as happened with other developers, they find they can no longer provide free upgrades with the amount of new sales coming in. The only solution is to come out with a new product that no longer gets free lifetime upgrades.

I applaud Mike for holding out as long as he did. The fact is though that he was the one who sold the product with free lifetime upgrades. He can't do it any longer so the product has to die. I know there are promises of bug fixes and such but the fact of the matter is that there are no more free upgrades. Over time, even the fixes will become less and less.

Here comes the "new" product Qimage Ultimate. Actually it is not new, it is an upgrade. It may have a ton of new code but it is built from Qimage. Mike may argue it is a totally new product but it is still called Qimage and it is not 100 percent new code.  I understand a lot of work went into it, I understand the economics of it all. It is an upgrade not a new product!

The decent thing to do would have been to offer current users an upgrade path to Qimage Ultimate. I bought Pro, I bought Studio, I would have paid an annual upgrade fee if it had been part of the package. Now Ultimate comes out, another upgrade, I agree to the annual fee, I want to upgrade, but I am told this is totally new and I must purchase the product at full price plus pay the annual fee. Not nice, not classy, not a good way to do business or win customers.

Mike, I am sorry you are bitter that your free upgrades for life policy didn't work forever. It's not my fault though, you made the policy. Qimage is so good that I want to support you and your work. I am more than willing to pay to upgrade to Ultimate, I am more than willing to pay an annual fee, but I will not purchase your upgrade at full price.

Five years from now whether I am still using Qimage or not I will not have paid DDI any money at all. If a reasonable upgrade path would have been offered, I would have paid DDI $80 plus the upgrade fee in those 5 years. Multiply that by the number of users who won't upgrade not because they don't feel Mike deserves the money but because they were given no consideration in being able to upgrade. Its very sad.

The cost of Ultimate is dinner for two at a nice restaurant.
We are not talking about a second mortgage.
The yearly upgrade fee is next year.... In the meantime, Tone Targeted Sharpening has been added in just a couple of weeks. The Lightning RAW which is the backbone of the new Qimage, is what makes it new.
Mike chose to keep the Qimage name since it carried 10 years worth of excellent reputation with it and you know he gave you 10 times your money's worth.
He could have called it Miracle Raw, but he thought people would recognize the years of honest work that went into Qimage, and would realize that the same integrity will be continued in the new product.

You don't want to buy it, OK. It's America. Just realize that you lose out more than the 90 bucks worth.

Good luck! Sleep on it!

Fred

End users are in no position to make determinations about what is or is not a new product.  Qimage Ultimate is a new product and if you want that product, you will have to pay for it.  Did you get a free ride from Adobe when they released Lightroom and charged you full price for features that, in this day and age, should really have been included in PhotoShop?  Did you complain on their forums when they tried to sell it to you for $250 when 75% of the code is the same as PhotoShop 5 (yes 5, not CS5)?  Because I can assure you, if you did, they don't care!  People pay Adobe $250 per year and for what?  For them to change the "4" to a "5" after the letters "CS"?  What do you get with CS5?  Their content aware is a joke: it doesn't even begin to work in 98% of cases outside a couple of hand-picked simple examples on YouTube.  Then after you buy it you find out that in the vast majority of cases, it just slaughters the image and you have to resort to manual cloning.  Did people burn Adobe at the stake for forcing people to upgrade to CS5 just to get support for new raw formats for new camera models?  I'm still putting those in the old Qimage Studio!  No.  It's a business decision and people realize what they are getting and they can decide for themselves if the need is there (to buy a new product).

In contrast, Tone Targeted sharpening, Lightning Raw, and many more features that are currently in the works in Ultimate are innovations that go far beyond elusive "magicware" that only works for one or two in 100 examples.  They work on EVERY image!  Car companies add a new stitching to their seats and heated windshield washers and they call their model "new for 2011".  Other software companies take the exact same software from last year and add nothing more than support for another format (let's say Blu-Ray for example) and they call that a new product even though it looks almost identical to the old one.  Would you have still complained if I called the new software "Widget Plus" instead of "Qimage Ultimate"?  I almost named it something entirely different but after thinking about it, there is nothing that should preclude us from carrying on a good name and a good brand.  "Qimage" may be the brand but "Ultimate" is the model.  It is really quite ridiculous to have users proclaiming "this is not a new product".  It certainly is and it is already proving that.  The product you purchased (Lite, Pro, or Studio) is still in production and is still supported and updated.  We can't pay for truly new innovations like those (already found and to come) in Ultimate on free rides.  With Lite, Pro, and Studio, you get free upgrades to the product you purchased for the life of that product.  That's what "free lifetime upgrades" means.  It doesn't mean that everything I do in my lifetime will be added to the product you purchased for free!  Sooner or later you have to admit that what you are doing now is well beyond the scope of what people purchased.  It's then that a new product is born.  Qimage Ultimate is a new product with pricing and upgrade policies that make Ultimate as much a bargain in 2010 as Qimage and its free lifetime upgrades were in 1998!

Mike

Mike,
 
Nobody denies the quality of your product. Nobody denies you need to derive income in order to keep inovating. I think everybody agrees they got a bargain with Qimage. And, I think everybody has no problem moving to a yearly fee model. Nobody says you should never make any money on anything new you do for the rest of your life either.

But calling it Qimage implies upgrade not new. Adobe called it Lightroom not Photoshop Ultimate. DDISoftware is the brand, like Adobe, Qimage is the model, like Photoshop. Maybe you should have played off the "Q" and called it Qultimate.  In any case, I think most users are angry that they did not receive the courtesy of an upgrade to the new product. If people upgrade, they will now be paying you $20 a year for life whereas before it was $0 a year. I think if you had offered your users an upgrade path you would have a lot more people switching. It would have been really nice if you had said I have developed a new application Qwhatever. These are the benefits, this is what I plan on doing with it. Unlike Qimage, in order to keep it on the cutting edge, this product will have a $20/year subscription. I thank you all for purchasing Qimage in the past and for a limited time to entice all of you to upgrade, I am offering a xx% discount off the regular price of $90.

You would have made back the initial discount with years and years of subscription renewals. Instead ........

How is QU "already proving that?"  How does it prove it's a new product?

When Adobe started bundling Bridge with Photoshop did anyone consider that a "new product?"  I didn't think so.  Adobe didn't think so - they charged current PS owners an upgrade price for the new version (the Photoshop, Bridge bundle).

Most users think of a "new product" in terms of what the product can do - to a user it has nothing to do with how much new code there is or how nifty that feature is they worked on.  It's about function, to users.

So what is Qimage to users?  For most users it's the best printing program out there.  For some users it's also a handy/good RAW converter.  From a big picture perspective, those are Qimage's core functions (I apologize if I missed something(s) but I don't think it's matters to my point).

What does Qimage Ultimate bring to the party, core function-wise?  Nothing that I'm aware of - again, I'm sorry if I missed the big new core function.  There were enhancements - from what I've read some of those enhancements are really, really good.

Even if there is some big core function that has been added to Qimage, it's still an upgrade - much like when Adobe bundled Bridge with Photoshop (with Bridge, they added the core functionality of an image browser (view images and edit metadata)).  Qimage Ultimate to me is still the best printing program out there (I don't convert my RAW images with Qimage) - in other words, its core function did not change for me and many, many others.

Even if the code were rewritten from the ground up, it's still an upgrade to users.

The bottom line, if Qimage Ultimate really was a "new product" people would use Qimage Studio alongside Qimage Ultimate.  Or Qimage Pro and Qimage Ultimate, etc.  They would use both in tandem because the two products would serve different purposes (provide different functions).  I don't think people use these products that way at all (in tandem).  If you buy and use Qimage Ultimate, you very likely stop using Qimage Studio/Pro/Lite.

Conversely, when I bought Lightroom I did not stop using Photoshop.  Lightroom really was a "new product."


Of course not.  We're not suggesting that at all.


Of course not.  We're not suggesting that at all.


This is where you lose many of us.  The logic doesn't sync with reality.  When I bought Qimage Studio it was the best printing program I had tried.  That scope has not changed.  Not for me, not for many of us.  A new product is "born" if it provides a whole new core function(s).  It's a "new product" if it is meant to be used alongside the "old product," not replace it.  A replacement is an upgrade.

Maybe I'm missing what you're saying.  Show me an example in the photo software world of what you're talking about.  Show me a software product from another vendor that you see as a good Qimage Ultimate "new product" example.


Well, I don't agree with the "new product" part but I agree that it is a bargain for new users.  Not so much for existing users.

Like egale said, I'll use Qimage Studio until it works no longer and then I'll buy the best printing program for the buck (probably QU or it's replacement).  That is the cost effective choice you're forcing me to make.  If that's five years from now, DDI lost $100 from this user.  I would rather give you a reasonable upgrade payment and the $100.  You're a tough guy to give money to Mike.

Sorry, but I need to jump in here.  When I bought Qimage, even when I upgraded to Studio, I never dreamed I would be working with raw images or doing about 50% of what is now my normal workflow.  For each of you who feels cheated, ask yourself how much money you spend annually on your photo profession (or hobby as in my case) in terms of photo equipment, computer and printing equipment, and paper ink cartridges etc.  I have said it before, I'll repeat it, Qimage is a full 30 to 40% of my overall functionality, it is about 3 or 4% of the overall cost.

I don't see people saying they feel cheated.  Maybe I missed it.

+1, Mel.  What do we spend annually on ink cartridges alone?  I cannot count the number of photos I've printed or had printed without touching the file with any program but Qimage, and that includes an 18x24 from a Canon Powershot Pro1.  The only thing which I wanted that Qimage couldn't do was selective sharpening.  That hole has been filled.  Long-time user, upgraded to Pro and then Studio...wondering all the time how in the world Mike was making a living.  I'll be buying QU very shortly.

I received a email from Adobe yesterday - offer upgrade my Elements 7 to CS5 at a 50% discount over £300 -  now that is still real money considering they will be offering another costly upgrade to CS6 soon.

jeff

Looking at the features what I want in my Qimage Studio Edition from the features of Qimage Ultimate is:
- New streamlined user interface                          
- Tone targeted sharpening: selective sharpening                   
- High precision sizing/positioning in metric mode (0.1mm)

However, I will try Qimage Ultimate after the holidays, but I don't need a new RAW converter, I want just these 3 features above from Qimage Ultimate.
An annual subscription edition of Qimage Studio with the "ultimate printing updates" wouldn't be a bad thing, just my 2 cents to this thread.

Even though the $90 cost is a small fraction of what is spent on the hobby or profession, that is not the point.

The fact is that Qimage Lite/Pro/Studio were promised lifetime free upgrades. That is not the case anymore. What they will get are updates, updates for new raw image formats, updates for bug fixes, etc. There will be no more new functionality as that is now part of Ultimate.

The fact is that free lifetime upgrades only works as long as you continue to sell new copies. It is like a pyramid though and eventually you run out of new customers and cash flow.

The fact is we have been getting annual upgrades for years for free but now the cash has run out and this year instead of Qimage 2011, Qimage Ultimate is released and it is touted as a brand new product, hence no free upgrade.

The fact is Qimage is the best printing program out there and all those who have enjoyed the free upgrades year after year realize the work that went into it and have no problem upgrading to the new program and subscription model.

But, the fact is that Mike decided to snub his user base and not offer an upgrade to the new version and make everyone pay as a first time customer. This disrespect is what has angered people. If Adobe said Photoshop CS6 will be a total rewrite and as such there will be no upgrades, people would be up in arms. The fact that the $90 is only a small portion of my annual cost doesn't make it right or reasonable. Come the end of the day, Qimage Ultimate is an upgrade, maybe a major upgrade at that, but an upgrade just the same.  Mike is bitter because HIS business model is no longer working and instead of being gracious and humble, has taken a hardline, hardnose, approach. How many would upgrade at a reasonable cost and pay the annual fee? Probably lots. I had high regards for Qimage and Mike. I still have high regards for the product and all the work that was done. But, it has been made obvious what Mike thinks of his user base and I don't condone or respect that at all.
 

Looks like someone doesn't know the definition of "upgrade" and likes to pick and choose their "facts".  From Wiki on "upgrade" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_upgrade): replacement of a product with a newer version of the same product... a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date or to improve its characteristics."

But even if I agree to your fake definition of upgrade where an upgrade must contain new features, Lite, Pro, and Studio still fit the definition of receiving upgrades.  By the real definition of upgrade, all of the following would be considered an upgrade but even using your own made-up definition, we have:

Compatibility with future OS's: update
Compatibility with future printer hardware and software: update
Compatibility with changes to image formats: update
Bug fixes: update

Support for new camera models: upgrade
Print speed improvements: upgrade
Print quality improvements: upgrade
Improvements to existing features (like the upcoming ability to see text info on preview page): upgrade

So obviously you are still getting free upgrades for Lite, Pro, and Studio.  I could very easily have done exactly what our accountants wanted us to do and dump Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio completely!  They had even written up a statement that went something like "Qimage (LPS) has reached the end of it's expected life cycle of ten years... that product has been discontinued... Our new product, XYZ, is being built to compete in the 2010 marketplace...".  But I won't do that.  I have too much respect for my users.  I think the vast majority of my users return that respect which is why I will NOT discontinue Qimage Lite, Pro, or Studio!  I'm not going to take the recommendations made to me and leave those products behind even if there are a few people out there who think the world should be 90% take and 10% give!  Qimage Ultimate is a new product.  It has significant changes and additions on the outside, massive changes on the inside, a new registration and support process, new resources assigned to it, and a very aggressive upgrade schedule.  

As recent as about 5 years ago, we could develop Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio with free lifetime upgrades but as you may (should have) noticed, there have been fewer significant advancements in technology WRT Qimage than 5, 7, 10 years ago: advancements like you are getting in Qimage Ultimate: Lightning Raw, tone targeted sharpening, full UI reviews, code rebuilds to bring Qimage to near-perfect on all platforms, etc.  The reason for this is simple.  Our user base grew to the point where we were spending 70% of our time supporting existing users for free: support like replacing unlock codes that users should have saved themselves, tutoring users who refuse to read the manual, helping users solve problems with other equipment, and even giving advice on cameras, printers, and computers.  We are quickly getting back on the cutting edge of the technology wave with Qimage Ultimate, but that takes resources and a different approach.  It can't be done by extending the free ride of the past into Ultimate with generous discounts.  We simply cannot support this new venture doing that.  I do feel a special loyalty to those who purchased Studio because in general, they haven't had as long a "ride".  Again due to the resources involved on the new Ultimate project, discounts are out but I will give away our full archive of (raw) camera profiles to anyone who purchased both Studio and Ultimate.  See the link near the bottom of the mini-FAQ for details: http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/minifaq.htm.  That's an archive of 53 profiles that sell for $17.95 each.  Of course, I can't refund profiles you've already purchased nor will you have all 53 cameras to get the full $951 value but even if you have one or two cameras on that list or you frequently deal with photos from other photographers, that's a significant incentive!

Mike

Hi Mike,

If you had said your previous missive just before you released qu, I think you would have avoided most of the agro.

fwiw, I looked at alternatives to qimage for printing, with canvas wraps, of course, and had a look at the fractals thing. I have not done a final image comparison with your se version, because I found much of their gui worse than qimage - and you know how 'nice' I am about such things.

Even I may end up buying qu, 'cos then I can argue with you some more, and hopefully push you further with the printing side of things :)

Best wishes,

Ray

I think what Mike was saying and you are not hearing is that an upgrade is an upgrade, and you get them for free.
Q-Ultimate is a new program and that you should have to consider buying.
Life is too short.
Buy the darned thing and get your money's worth back the first time you use Lightning Raw and Tone Targeted Sharpening.

Fred  :-\

And - for what it's worth - I sure don't remember ever being promised free increased functionality when i bought Qimage or Studio.  I thought updates would take care of bug fixes and compatibility with printers, operating systemsn etc.

I hear him.

From past experience I know that once this happens to a product as has been done with Qimage, upgrades/updates become less and less. The program is basically static except for maybe some new support for a new camera or bug fix. Even with best of intentions now, this is what will happen to Qimage Legacy. But I am ok with that, I don't argue the point. I have stated I am fine with paying a fair upgrade fee and the annual support.

I am angry with the way he went about releasing Ultimate and I am very uncomfortable with his attitude and disregard towards his user base. I will go out of my way to patronize a local business which provides great service even at a higher price than the big box store or online merchant. But I won't patronize a business who treats me like crap even if their product or service is superior.

All I am saying is to be fair to your user base and spread good will, offer previous buyers an upgrade discount to Ultimate just as you have done in the past. Instead all I hear back is that everyone is a freeloader, Ultimate is completely new, blah, blah, blah. I am not going to give any more money to someone who thinks so little of me.

OK.  First of all, who is this "we".  You are the only one I see still beating this dead horse.


That's what you would like people to believe because you feel "cheated" that you can't get a new product for a considerable discount just because you used another one and got free upgrades for 10 years, 5 years, whatever.  Now somehow you think I "owe you" on new work I do!  So I don't think the people who have received upgrades for 5 or 10 years are free loaders: they got what they paid for (and what I'm still providing).  The freeloaders are the ones who want to take those 5 or 10 years of free upgrades and somehow use that against me to "bargain" their way into a new product or make up arbitrary requirements about how I can use my resources.  I think I've explained myself quite well and consider this topic closed.

BTW, as a Studio user if you buy Ultimate you get all camera (raw) profiles for free.  Since raw is a big part of Studio/Ultimate, I think that's quite a bargain on top of the bargain you've been getting since you bought Qimage in 2004.

Mike

Jeff--

I don't think the key to that was the cost.  The offered you "50% discount."  It sounds as though that's one of the rubs with the QU plan.

Let me add a few thoughts and comments.

When first notified of QU, I was annoyed as there seemed to be very little difference between the Studio Edition and the Ultimate and there was not upgrade path.  As time has gone on, QU has evolved and the tone targeted sharpening is a significant added capability from prior editions.  If QU had been introduced with this, I would have grumbled about lack of upgrade path similar to that for Adobe whiich Jeff identified but said ok.  I understand Mike's problem in "upgrade" as in prior editions, you paid the difference in price and Mike has opted not to increase the price above that of Studio prior to QU introduction - so what we as Studio users would have expected was paying a minimal charge plus the annual fee and a lot of grumbling if it were more.  Calling it a new product and providing an opportunity to purchase the new product at a discount similar to what Adobe or Corel does would have worked for me and NO subsequent bitching.  Regarding Mike's offer of camera profiles, this isn't a benefit to me personally as my camera is not one on the list and due to the life cycle position for those on the list, I'm unlikely to buy one of them.

Currently I use use either an Adobe product or Bibble for RAW pre-processing as both programs offer easier capability than QU does.  If QU could read and build on their results that would make me a very happy camper (HINT, HINT) as it would eliminate a conversion step.  The fact that tone targeted sharpening can work on jpegs or tiff files is an alternative that I'll have to evaluate for my workflow.

Personally, I think Mike's offer to maintain the QImage versions through camera and OS changes is fantastic.  I do worry about OS changes however as new OS versions under Mircosoft do not necessarily have backward compatibility - try running DOS or 16 bit apps or even some older 32 bit programs under Win 7.  Needed or not, we'll all be going to 64 bit if for no other reason than hard drives will require it in the future due to addressing space.

Hi,
I wouldn't agree,Q-U raw is VERY easy to use, be specific please.
Again, be specific please, what do you mean.  ???
It works on raw files too, in Q-U of course  8)
Terry

I think you have too Mike, and folks should give it a rest.  Either they're going to buy QIU or they won't.  I've been very happy with QIPro, and may or may not buy the NEW product.  If it suits my needs I'll buy it, if it doesn't add significantly to my needs, I won't.  I'm waiting for a while to download the trial version because you keep adding new stuff at such a fast rate that by the time I would download it and have a chance to check it out, something new comes along, and my trial period has run out before I get a chance to try it.  How about lengthening the trial period a bit?

You do realize that the comparison has no merit because Adobe has never offered a product with free lifetime upgrades!  I'm sure when you think about it, the difference is obvious.  Adobe charges you 50% every year for the same product with (most of the time) only minor changes!  So obviously you are paying full price for their products every 2 years.  We have people who have been upgrading Qimage for 12 years for free.  Now they still want 50% off.  Doesn't make sense.  In 12 years, Adobe would have charged you full price SIX TIMES OVER!  Not to keep beating the dead horse, but that obvious difference needs to be stated!

Mike

Mike

I wasn't trying to be argumentative.

My comment on the Adobe discount was relative to Jeff's offer for an upgrade from Photoshop Elements 7 (an older version of PE) to Photoshop for a 50% discount.  PE7 and PS CS5 are significantly different programs.  I did not suggest that you should have offered a 50% discount although that would have been nice.  I said I understood your dilemma in offering any discount as previously it was only the difference in version pricing and QS and QU were essentially the same product price at the time of introduction.  You chose a price point to maximize your sales but it created a problem relative to your treatment of old customers as the price of QS previously and QU were identical.  

Since you appear to be caught up in nitpicking on analogies - Adobe doesn't do a version change every year - there's been a minimum of 2 years between versions in the CS series which is approximately the time at which you will also get 50% of the purchase price.  QU has no longer Free upgrades for life so your policy is currently essentially the same as Adobe's except that you collect your 50% over 2.5 years versus Adobe's at time of version change and that they offer a discount on upgrading from a competing product to encourage sales.

Terry

This is an irrelevant discussion because the various RAW pre-processing programs are not identical and do offer differences in features and ease of achieving an effect.  While I have no intention of getting into a feature by feature discussion, I find the gradated filter in Photoshop RAW processing that allows maximum differentiation between sky and clouds up high with minimum effect near the horizon where land meet the sky similar to that of a polarizing filter useful and quick.  You might be able to do the same in QS but not as easy nor in its variations.

Both Adobe and Bibble do not make permanant changes to the RAW files but rather use an associated file similar to Q.  The ability to transfer your processed RAW file from either of these programs and then finishing the job in QU would be beneficial without having to make the conversion to a jpeg or tiff file as the final step prior to QU.  I'm fuilly aware that tone targeted sharpening can work on RAW files in QU but I can't get my other adjustments to QU because it won't read Adobe's or Bibble's preprocessing files.

CS3 - April 16, 2007
CS4 - October 15, 2008
CS5 - April 30, 2010

So if I were nitpicking, I think I'd have to split the difference between your 2 years and my 1 and call it about 18 months. :)

Mike

Nitpicking some more...

Adobe - $200 upgrade versus $700 new (PS Standard).  With an 18 month renewal cycle that works out to $133 per year or 19% per year (133/700).

QU - $20 yearly subscription versus $90 new.  That works out to 22% per year (20/90).

I think I have those numbers right.

Mike

You missed version CS2 April, 2005 and version 1 in Feb, 1990 (CS5 is version 12 introduced in 4/2010 thus 11 versions in over 20 years)

However, your nitpicking about this extraneous s*** is really beginning to piss me off.  Your current business model isn't different from others and your whining about all the free support over the years is tiring after awhile.  That was your decision.  I wasn't one of your customers from the beginning so I can't speak to the early days and the rapid incorporation of features (I assume similar to what's appears to be happening in QU) which is really market research.   I found the discussions/help in the forums interesting but by the time I'd advanced enough to arrive at that problem since I'm not full time doing this, I had difficulty finding it.  I would have preferred that the manual was more frequently updated to reflect that knowledge and added changes than trying to search for it in the forums.

You don't discuss the issues that people have expressed in this section but rather berate them for feeling disappointed and grumbling about feeling left behind.  The questions/feelings brought up regarding competitive discounts are real and shouldn't be glossed over.  It's your business and you can do what you want but I find that your attitude is different from your past discussions/help and thus disturbing and you should reflect on it and how it is affecting our relationship.  
 

Why don't all you whiners shut up now!
What's all this nonsense about percentages, you must fall for all the store sales stuff that says 50% off an already inflated price. It's the cash flow that matters don't you know! You spend '1000's on expensive equipment and software yet begrudge $90 and Mike making an honest living. It is not Mike's problem that you are in whining mode, it's yours. There’s ignorance or naivety been shown about interchange ability of raw adjustment files, get real please!
None of you whiners on this thread seem to have ever made a positive contribution on this forum, never helped anyone with a problem, never shared your photographic and software experience on "how to ...." with Qimage or any other software.
You whiners say you are fed up with Mike on this, well, let me tell you, the majority of others here are fed up with you, so SHUT UP now, please!
Terry

It's all a matter of perspective and the value you assign to things.  It takes Adobe a year and a half to release a "major" upgrade with 3,900 employees while I can make more significant improvements in my own software in one year.  Fact is, a major upgrade is a major upgrade.  Adobe charges you $200/$700 or 29% for major upgrades.  I charge $20/$90 or 22%.  I can't help that I work faster than they do nor the fact that I can offer you MUCH more value for your money!  It took them 18 months to release CS5 for which their flagship feature, content aware, works in only a small number of hand picked cases.  They want you to buy it though, so they stop supporting camera raw in CS4 so that if you buy a new camera, you'll be forced to buy CS5 to be able to use raw with that camera even though it isn't much of an upgrade from CS4.

Let's face it, regardless of my methods, there will always be a few people in a crowd of a thousand who will complain.  One person may complain because they assign a different value to different features or different upgrade plans than most.  Another may complain because they assumed that "free upgrades" meant that development on that particular program was open ended and unlimited and I would never come out with new software with similar functionality.  And at the far end of the spectrum, some might complain just because they have a very warped view of the word "value".  That's just the nature of business.  In the mean time, Lite, Pro, and Studio are still supported and upgraded.  I think most people are smart enough to determine whether they need the new work I'm doing in Ultimate and whether it is worth the price to them.  To decide, it only requires balancing your budget with your needs.  Isn't that how we all decide whether or not to buy a new model of anything?

So at this point, I think every avenue has already been covered on this topic.

Mike