I agree with everyone that this is an incredible jump in price, but I may still go ahead and bite the bullet and buy a license. My question is whether to go with the portable version or standard. The portable seems nice, but I'm not sure its benefits would justify the increase in cost for us. The main benefits I've read are about its ability to run on WinFE, along with the other standard benefits of portable software.

Am I missing something? I'm just trying to avoid buying the standard version and later regretting it.

Jason  

An average machine will take a few hours to run so the portable may not be the best option if you are doing field collections and lab analysis - just my opinion. I usually let IEF run at night and do review in the AM.
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Douglas A. Brush, CFC, EnCE
www.linkedin.com/in/douglasabrush 

It can be hard to price software tools at a price that pays for the development and support, as well as matches the value to the customer. I started my business out of my house on the side of my day job. The original pricing was very low, because I under estimated the value to others.

When I decided to build a real business around my products, I had to wake up and recognize my development costs and the current market values. Some of my current customers questioned 10-25% price increases each year. I decided to make the increases gradually, rather than all at once.

Having started small, I recognize that a one man business can produce a quality product and higher value than the competition. When a bug is discovered, they take it personally and have more incentive to be responsive to their customers. They also have the flexibility to change a product's direction on a dime and kick out a revolutionary product quickly. If their revenue dips, they can fall back on their day job if they still have one. The business may actually be more stable than a startup, because it doesn't cost much to support a side business.

Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell the difference between a hobby product and a well supported product with a company behind it.

I think $250 is a reasonable price for a product like this. When the product supports more types of files, then it should increase towards an eventual price around $500. $3,000 is for products from large companies that need to support their inflated overhead. You don't always get what you pay for.

IMHO

Rob
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Rob Zirnstein
President
Forensic Innovations, Inc.
www.ForensicInnovations.com
Rob.Zirnstein @ ForensicInnovations.com 

@ research1 pre 4 versions appear to be free to date. v4 is $250 American Dollars (LEO price). Our lab uses this product extensively so we have to come up with American Dollars for 3 licenses. 3.5.2 has been a great product for us. I understand the commitment to this product should require an increase.