Manufacturer | BMW Motorrad | BMW+Mini | VW+Audi+Seat+Skoda |
2012 vehicle sales (annual report) | 106,358 | 1,841,611 | 7,305,000 |
Volume factor | 1 | 17 | 69 |
Tool | GS-911blu | Bavarian Technic Enthusiast | VCDS (VAG-COM) |
Tool price | $349 | $287 | 349 |
VIN limit | 10 | 3 | unlimited |
Bluetooth | YES | No | No |
Mobile version | YES | No | No |
* Cost multiplier | - | $4,969 | $23,970 |
** Difference amortised as annual update fee at $49*** | - | 101 years | 489 years |
This is a difficult one isn't it ?
At the moment the feedback on the GS911 and it's ongoing support is really, really good and IMHO well deserved.
It has to be funded to work, no doubt about that.
However, once you start charging for updates many people (perhaps myself included) may pass on that because we have old(er) bikes and are running them on a budget. What we have today is "good enough". Once people start passing on the upgrades little problems will creep in due to OS, driver changes, etc as always happens with older software. So the (almost 100%) positive feedback may get erroded, just because not everyone is on the latest version. People with problmes will be berated with "buy the update!" if that doesn't solve their problem, they will feel agreaved.
Of course there is also a cost in collecting the revenue and making the product secure so only those that have paid get the updates, etc.
We have seen Apple make bold moves in this space to ensure people are always running the latest software wherever possible (and perhaps using that to drive subsequent hardware upgrades).
You might want to consider a voluntary donation scheme - easy to admin and zero enforcement costs + lots of willing donations due to the great service.
Perhaps a charge for the "Pro" devices, people making a living from using your work should perhaps give a little back ?
Perhaps a charge for the active support - calls / mails to the helpdesk, etc rather than just use of the software. I guess the majority of users are "self supporting" with the help of the internet ;-) Others may just go straight to the heldesk with the most minor of problems and that costs HEXCODE money.
Perhaps only supporting some of the new, more advanced features on the newer (WiFi ?) hardware to encourage people to upgrade. You need to produce in volume to keep costs down and upgrades would help in a limited market, you can't support the old hardware / software forever with an indentical feature set. Perhaps bug fixes and "maintenance" only for old hardware rather than new features.
Perhaps a charge to add newer BWM models ? I gues that's where most of the development cost is.
No easy answers but you have a great customer following and support. In a limited market, maintaining that support is ultimately the key to success.
I guess you've stuck with the "free upgrades" model for so long becasue it has worked so well in terms of customer feedback / satisfaction. If it's not broken, then plug in the GS911 to make sure ;-)
Best of luck for the future whichever way you decide to go.
Paul
So, I did a quick search and got the numbers for BMW Motorrad, vs BMW cars, vs VW group and I've summarised them in a table below...
(now make sure you sit down before studying this table...)
Manufacturer BMW Motorrad BMW+Mini VW+Audi+Seat+Skoda 2012 vehicle sales (annual report) 106,358 1,841,611 7,305,000 Volume factor 1 17 69 Tool GS-911blu Bavarian Technic Enthusiast VCDS (VAG-COM) Tool price $349 $287 349 VIN limit 10 3 unlimited Bluetooth YES No No Mobile version YES No No * Cost multiplier - $4,969 $23,970 ** Difference amortised as
annual update fee at $49***- 101 years 489 years
NOTES:
* Assuming we have the same market penetration, then this is what we would need to sell each GS-911 for, in order to make the same sales turnover as the comparative tool
** Assuming we keep the current sales price and make up the difference to sales turnover (to the comparative tool), at an annual fee of $49, then this is the amount of years of updates it would take to reach the same sales turnover
*** $49 is used as an example only, as it shows the "best case scenario" for amount of years (i.e. with a smaller fee the years would simply increase)
I hope this creates some perspective ;)
I too was one of the originals who purchased his GS911 before the Enthusiast and the Prof version and once I did an upgrade, I could only do 10 bikes instead of many.Well, if you think back, before we implemented the Professional vs Enthusiast, the GS-911 had only the functionality to:
Now, they want to charge for upgrades. When you compare exchange rates from one country to another, $50 is expensive as is almost 1/6th of what I paid for my unit.you purchased a device that reads and clears Fault codes and reads and displays Engine realtime values... and you've gotten 100 times that functionality for free since...
What I originally paid for and what I have now is 2 completely different things, yes I appreciate the newer bikes / models, however I can only do / handle 10 bikes.Indeed... see my comment above... probably 100x more functionality now... :o
I am not happy with this but like most other things, it will be implemented anyway and to hell with what our views are against this.Why?, you don't have to buy an update!... not sure how many bikes you have or what bike models... but most of the existing bikes are pretty well covered... so in theory if you don't change you're bike, there will be almost no reason to upgrade... So what's the problem?
PS WTF? I have to look up maximum torque figure for the R1200GS LC to post - that's silly
My "here" was this new Hexcode forum.There's nothing to fix... if you have less than 5 posts in total, you have to answer these silly questions... if you don't know the answer, choose another question... ;)
I registered once and it worked- I can reply to old and make new ...
I hope the Hexcode crew will get your problem fixed, soon!!