New Versions of Xara Designer Pro X(15)

[csehz]

Huhh so 150$ we paid in the summer for the X15 'update' of flexible resizing documents or whatever is that function + for the usual noone is interested online contents.

So they really dropped their company for the dogs. Understand that an originally good software for a dirty marketing machine, which will be not developed anymore.

It was hard to believe at the beginning but happening like that. Once the management mentioned here that the numbers show good selling, so they will press out everything what is possible through these 'camouflage updates' and after once announce that no updates anymore

[Guest]

Just asked this in the "Dear Xara" section - perhaps someone from Xara will chime in and give a definitve answer on future prices for the renewal of the update service.

[ernie-f]

If Magix let us loyal customer bleed and the renewal price next year is about 149,- € or/and no improvments follow, I quit.
For Affinity Designer I paid last Year 39,- €. Until now I got six Updates and new features were build in. Thats it. No more pay for new versions. Serif brings every quarter a new version with improvements.
Say it with Jimmie Van Zandts song: „No more dirty deals!”

[handrawn]

heres the upgrade I am quoted without the pan studio : 99.99 GBP....

[Guest]

heres the upgrade I am quoted without the pan studio : 99.99 GBP....

Funny: The Magix UK site is the only one without that "Regularly $/€xxx" addendum to the price tag for the renewal and without any hint towards a time limited discount...

So, perhaps this is just a marketing scheme and the legal boundaries for false advertising and unfair competition are tighter in the UK?

[handrawn]

I just got an email from Magix - guess because I started the buy process [just to see if there was a difference between licenced and unlicenced upgrade price for me: it seems not], which I then aborted... so I could save myself an extra 7 GBP to buy something I still don't want... or actually.. anything in their sale... hummm

[Egg Bramhill]

Spot on John. I just fail to understand the version numbers/names let alone their pricing structure.

[webmaster]

I know it’s difficult to ignore the version number, because we are all so used to thinking in those terms, but that’s what we have to try and do. Or at least try not to read any great significance into this version number change. This is an incremental Update Service update, like the March and July ones. And like those, it’s free if your Update Service is current. However one advantage of the changing version number is that you can download and run the new trial version even if your Update Service has expired, which was one of the reasons we did it (as requested here in TalkGraphics).

Magix offer a lot more currencies than Xara and they do a lot more offers, and they don’t necessarily run the same offers at exactly the same time in different countries. That makes comparisons rather difficult. All I think I can safely say is that new copies will cost the same, in $ and £ only and so long as there isn’t an offer on, whereas upgrades and renewals will be more for some and less for others depending on when you last upgraded/renewed (inside or outside an intro offer or pre-expiry offer for example) and what currency you paid in. I’m sorry that isn’t a nice clear answer, but pricing across so many countries, currencies and channels is in fact quite complicated!

Kate Moir

[browj2]

@Kate,

Thanks for confirming what I suspected about the reasoning behind the numbering. I expect that there were probably a few other reasons that made it convenient to issue the update with a new main number.

Your explanation about the rest is understandable when one looks at all of the languages and regions that Magix operates in. It is definitely not easy.

@handrawn

Told you so! Ok, it was a bit tongue-in-cheek on my part, but you did make a very good argument to have a way for those who did not renew to see new features,,, once in a while. Xara listened and acted.

[Guest]

@Kate
Well, it's not only the version number, is it? It is also the way this release was announced in this very forum. There has (to my knowledge) always been a clear distinction in the TalkGraphics announcement section between "Just Released: An update to ..." and "Just Released: A New Version of ...".

V15 was announced as new version, which was counter-productive in terms of managing customer expectations if V15 was merely meant to be a bugfix release (that ironically seems to have introduced quite a few new bugs if I look around this forum).

I feel that there is still quite some irritation in the user base concerning the whole MAGIX deal and even those small errors in communication don't really help to build trust.

@XARA/MAGIX
When it comes to the pricing issue, I'm not willing to shrug it off.
Pricing across many countries is complicated? Well, quite frankly, so is deciding which of the so many graphics software alternatives out there to use in the future...

The subscription model - pardon me: update service - is some kind of a mutual contract: You get my money continuously, I get continuous software innovation. Not only is there room to argue that you fell a bit short on your part of the deal in the recent past, you also leave me hanging in the air now on how much I have to pay for it?

Well, consider me "once bitten", but a vendor being evasive about prices means price increase to me. Which will in my reasoning bring the scales of "quid" and "pro" of our mutual contract even more out of balance. The only "hard facts" about pricing I get are on the MAGIX website, which makes clear that for German customers the regular price for renewal of the update service will be €299 - unless I renew blindly within the update period to get an unspecified special price, which I find troublesome concerning the said lack of software innovation.

Sorry, but this means I'm out. That's €25 per month - for another €25 I get the complete set of Adobe CC apps.