Image by aranarth via Flickr
The numbers are startling: their decimal points stuffed between endless zeros, their totals staggering. You stare, baffled by the cost of technology, wondering how prices can rise so high. Hardware demands all of your savings; programs steal your dollars; and the need to match the pace of progress becomes an impossible thing. You can’t afford quality… and you wonder if you even have to.
There should be no correlation between price and functionality. Distributors, you believe, are merely siphoning your money. Cheap software is just as efficient. There’s no need to purchase what can’t be afforded.
This is, sadly, not always true.
The battle between cost and quality is one that’s forever dominated technology. Individuals have grown weary of paying for what they’re certain they don’t need and have chosen instead to find alternatives — such as open source platforms, downloads and more. There’s wisdom in this: but only when there’s an understanding of applications.
Users experienced in codes and programming will find options readily available to them. Forum offerings can provide relief from manufacturer prices. Achieving the results of traditional software, however, can prove to be difficult for individuals who have only rudimentary skills. Those who lack the ability to master sources will be overwhelmed, devoting endless hours to CSS and never fully grasping it. This will lead to frustration, as well as eventual defeat. Purchasing programs that are already streamlined will instead be required.
And this is what propels pricing — those who are limited in their knowledge must suffer through high costs to gain access to the functions others may download. The distinction must be understood.
