Software Economics: Billís Law

• Bill Joyís law (Sun): donít write software for ,000 platforms @$10 million engineering expense, $1,000 price

• Bill Gateís law:donít write software for ə,000,000 platforms @$10 engineering expense, $100 price

• Examples:

  • UNIX versus Windows NT: $3,500 versus $500
  • Oracle versus SQL-Server: $100,000 versus $6,000
  • No spreadsheet or presentation pack on UNIX/VMS/...

• Commoditization of base software and hardware

Price

Fixed_cost

Marginal _cost

=

Units

+

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