September 1

[Anonymous]

Scuttle butt has it that there will be an announcement from Graphisoft on September 1st.
But what Kind of announcement is anybodies guess.

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Where did you hear that? Sounds like we don't have to wait too much longer for some news.

[Anonymous]

Does that fit in with the yearly upgrade all subscribers signed up for? It would appear that the only obligation for the yearly upgrade cycle was to GS itself.
Given that GS has not yet made a smooth transition between releases, I doubt any users will be too upset by the delay.....

[Steve Jepson]

rwallis wrote:
Does that fit in with the yearly upgrade all subscribers signed up for? It would appear that the only obligation for the yearly upgrade cycle was to GS itself.
Given that GS has not yet made a smooth transition between releases, I doubt any users will be too upset by the delay.....

It's not the delay I am upset about, it's the fact that my license to use ArchiCAD 13 may expire before I get much use out of it.

[owen]

meaning now the release interval is being pushed out, your 'maintenance agreement' may not actually stack up financially anymore. There were two advantages based on 12 month cycle:

1. Slightly reduced cost of license over the 12 months vs up-front purchase cost

2. 'Extra' support and goodies (i use the '' because that really depends on how big a customer you are, who your re-licenser is, etc). Maybe this should be half or a quarter point.

If an AC release is pushed out by even 1 month then #1 no longer applies in most instances. May as well put your money in the bank each month and wait until the next release. You will probably have something left over when that day comes.

So why do people go on these 'GS maintenance agreements' ??

P.S Steve .. i would drop your plan the day after you get your AC13 upgrade. Sounds like you've paid for it already, they just haven't delivered.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Steve wrote:
It's not the delay I am upset about, it's the fact that my license to use ArchiCAD 13 may expire before I get much use out of it.

I'm confused ... other than a pay-per-use license, ArchiCAD licenses never expire. So, not sure what you're saying, Steve...?

Karl

[Anonymous]

I think my 'maintenance agreement' came due in roughly May-09 and you only have 1yr of "free" upgrade within that time period.
So I'm loosing by the day.
Will not effect me this year, (or so it now seems),but next, because of the roll-over; or should I say non-roll-over?
I think the time period should be reset to when you actually get the product you paid for.

[Steve Jepson]

Karl wrote:

Steve wrote:
It's not the delay I am upset about, it's the fact that my license to use ArchiCAD 13 may expire before I get much use out of it.

I'm confused ... other than a pay-per-use license, ArchiCAD licenses never expire. So, not sure what you're saying, Steve...?

Karl

To use a current version of ArchiCAD always requires that you pay for a new license to use it.

When the subscription term does not match the new release schedule you will at some point be paying more for the licenses using a subscription plan than if you were to wait and pay for a license to use the upgrades as they come out. See graphic below.

Chart the terms of your past subscriptions (everyone has a different start date) against various release schedules to decide if you should let your subscription run out and restart it at a better time, or just forget it.

The whole idea of a subscription is to try an make you pay in advance for a product you know noting about, or pay a penalty.

We are already 14 months past the last release announcement!
Is seems possible at this point that we may not get ArchiCAD 13 until October this year.

[Brett Brown]

Well said Steve, but your graph will change if the next release is less than 12 months.

I don't know what you Americans are moaning about. You pay way less on subscription than the rest of the world does.

I wait for the pre release specials, upgrade to 12 now and get 13 free, at the single version upgrade price (US$1200), so I'm happy. At least I know what I'm getting in 12 and can use 13 if there are any major benefits to the solo practitioner, or wait until Hotfix 5

[Steve Jepson]

a 9 month release just means you have to pay for the next new version that much sooner. You get even less value out of an annual subscription.

Why can't they just be fair and do away with the subscription plan.

All they need to do is pro-rate new licenses.

Every one would have the chance to see what they are paying for.

They will never do this because they do not want to be fair. The entire purpose of the subscription plan is to make you pay in advance before you have the opportunity to see if the upgrade is any thing you want or if it even works. This is their deliberate strategy for raising the R&D funds.
It forces us to take the financial risk instead of them. If we are all on subscription plans and pay in advance, it doesn't matter if the product is any good or not. They already got us to pay for it!
What fair about that?