The only rule is « buy when you NEED it ».
And the suggestion is « stop complaining, start living »
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I hope DXO’s software is better than their arithmetic. At the moment on the NIK collection page (in UK English) it says “Special offer - 30% off” and then shows a price reduction (for existing customers) from £69.00 to £49.99.
As an established PhotoLab (Elite) user, I’m very disappointed that DXO don’t offer the NIK collection at a more advantageous price given that I’ve already paid for the PhotoLab part of the bundle.
What if DxO would stop selling at discounted prices next year so the complainers go away too ?
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I’ve learned from experience that a sense of entitlement comes from a lack of perspective. We are often the authors of our own disappointment.
While DxO’s marketing is weak (not getting the word out to web sites and not being entirely accurate), it’s better than when PhotoLab 1 arrived. The current sale is “up to 30% off” or “30% off” depending on where you look, and - yes - isn’t accurate. Upgrading is discounted about 25%. Full price is discounted 33%. The actual markdowns are clearly indicated. I see nothing entitling anyone to more: sales are generous, competitive, and for a limited time. Want to pay less for Nik because you already have PhotoLab? Consider that Nik is seven tools, not one, and originally cost a lot more than it does today. Google offered it for free because it was abandonware - they weren’t developing or supporting it. You can still get that free version if you want it. DxO’s pricing seems competitive (IMO) if you’re not already a customer, and they recently added PhotoLab Essentials for no additional cost. Existing customers like me don’t see the same benefits. So what? I see no value in upgrading from Nik 1.x, since I don’t have a 4K display and don’t need the new filters. I see no reason to feel entitled - and don’t see DxO as being entitled either.
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I would also add, as a software developer, many people just don’t realise how much time, effort and money it takes to develop software.
One contributing factor to the impression shouldn’t cost much is the plethora of iOS software available for either nothing or next to nothing.
I have written an iOS app for a jazz festival. Because I wanted to support the festival, I did it for free, but it cost me around six months of effort.
That was a small iOS app - PhotoLab is considerably bigger and more complex and it is for macOS. If I were to estimate for starting to develop such a product, I would be looking at a team of half a dozen and around two to three years to get it to its current state (I appreciate that could be a gross underestimate)
Then there’s the cost of maintaining and improving the app over the years.
What DxO are asking, even at full price, is peanuts. Which leaves the question, if you don’t like the price, find an equivalent product for less - I’ve looked and tried most options - nothing comes anywhere near the functionality of PhotoLab
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I’m not up to date on the economics of software production costs and how this translates into pricing. Clearly market share is a major factor in pricing, and the two interact. What I do know is that in pre-sales literature, DXO constantly emphasise that it is a one-off cost, not the sort of rental process that Adobe operate. But if we succumb to the various upgrades and extensions on offer with DXO we could easily spend more per annum than on Adobe fees. Clearly Adobe have a much more functional suite of products, though DXO have some advantages in areas such as quality, usability and learnability.
I didn’t know it was still possible to get hold of the old, free version of Nik.
I’ve been trialling PhotoLab 3 and think the improvements over PhotoLab 1 are quite good, though incremental. In terms of value to me, given my own level of usage, I’d be willing to pay the Black Friday upgrade price. Maybe I’ll have to wait until next Black Friday.
There are so many posts, on this forum and elsewhere, complaining about the bizarre pricing of NIK with “free” PhotoLab, but no discount on NIK for those with PhotoLab, that anyone who thinks it’s not a problem must be in denial.
…indeed. Or as another wise person said:
“Make your choice, pay your price and stop complaining”
@RobEW,
Are all of DxO’s pricing models consistent, probably not. Since I have been using PLE since v1, I know the features in v3 are worth the “price of admission”. Sorry you didn’t take advantage of upgrade or Black Friday pricing. Waiting 11 months to upgrade is your choice. Seems to me is all you will do is miss out using a great product. You’ll have to decide what’s best for your situation.
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