by Ian Loginov » Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:09 am
I am a bit shy of products with hardware based activation. A lot of companies base it on the name of the computer. The problem is, I am constantly re-imaging/snapshotting computers, and routinely upgrade hardware. What happens when I do that? For example hitmanpro killed my license for too many activations, yet their own logs proved they never went outside of my IP address, only that hardware changed, and the products were never executed outside of my home, and were never installed on more then the licensed machines. It required lengthy support tickets and responses back and forth, and me having to 'convince' them I wasn't a pirate. This is after paying $60 for 5 PC's over 3 years, which proves I am a legit customer.
How does Admuncher handle these matters? One of the reasons I paid for a 5 PC, 3 year license to Bullguard was in order to activate it I need my email address and password, and I can install it anywhere I want as long as I do not exceed 5 logins each time the product checks for updates. I can log in to their website and deactivate a PC and activate a new one, as long as I do not exceed 5 PC's. This means I can reinstall/reformat/upgrade hardware as much as I want without hassle. Otherwise I would have been extremely cautious about purchasing the product.
The cheapest I can get Admuncher is $135.00 for 4 PC's, Lifetime. That's pretty excessive unfortunately, especially when I can continue to use free solutions. The most expensive piece of software I have purchased in the last 3 years was RollbackRX for 5 PC's $124.00 (lifetime) but I consider that an essential tool, and use it constantly to save major hassles with system screwups, or bad installations, etc. I am not trying to be difficult here, just saying I think you need to have a 'family' type of license for a reasonable price for situations such as mine. Win Patrol for example has a 'family and relatives' license which allows sharing among your family. (Grandparents, etc) Very liberable policy which definately encourages purchase. I have been marketing manager, and later COO of a fairly major software development company. I can tell you that there is a magical price point where you go from sales, to massive sales. As a non-essential tool I would think the price points for AM would be considerably less. "Fences" is a program I consider absolutely essential on windows machines, and it's $4.99. I happen to be privy to some sales numbers at Stardock, and they have sold nearly a million dollars worth of that tiny product alone. Any higher, most people wouldn't buy it. How many sales does Admuncher lose because of price points?
Suggestion: Lower price of licenses in the 3-5 PC range, which covers most households, and not businesses. The scaling I believe goes up a bit too fast. I am trying to buy the product, but cannot justify $135.00 for a non-essential tool. Sadly. I'd toss about half that your way for a 4-5 PC lifetime (right this very moment in fact), but no more. It is unfortunate as I love the idea of filtering ads at the port80 level.