Please release and maintain a lighter version of IMatch

[jarraun]

Hi Mario,

Congratulations for the new release of you great piece of software, all people here seem to be very happy with the release of IMatch 2020, not me. I´am an amateur photographer, enjoying a very good DAM tool for organising and taking care of my images, but I really don´t need so much features, say:

• Face recognition
• Geo Locations
• Developers apps
• Autotagger

and so on.

Photography is a real money shaker for non profit hobbyist as me, I think I can´t afford to spend 75 € every 18 months in a DAM.
I´am asking myself how many Imatch costumers are there thinking the same and be quiet....?
Please consider release and maintain a more basic and lighter version of IMatch that people like me can afford. Thank you.

Best wishes
Javier

[Mario]

This comes up about once or twice a year.

A "Lite" or "Intro" version of IMatch. With several core features removed. And an even lower price of course.

Keep in mind that IMatch has a feature set (and arguably better support) that matches what corporate DAMs like Extensis, FotoWare, Canto, AssetBank etc. offer. But it costs maybe 5-10% of what these systems cost. And with a perpetual license, no subscription or annual support contract.

Leaving out the AutoTagger is no problem. It's just an app.
Geo-locations are actually used mostly by amateur users. Not by many professionals.
I cannot leave out "Developer Apps", because apps and IMWS are a core technology of IMatch.
Leaving out face recognition would be possible.

I would guess stripping down IMatch, writing/updating corresponding help contents in multiple versions etc. would cost maybe a month or two of developer time.
I also would have to upgrade the customer portal and web site and distributor stuff to deal with this extra version etc.

Making some wild guesses about the number of users who would jump to a cheaper "intro" version of IMatch, this could probably lower the price by maybe 10 or 20$.
Not sure what you have in mind, price-wise.

Consider: There are free DAM systems available (Windows has some basic image management, there is Darktable etc.)
The cheapo users usually go a long way to make 'something' work for them to save some bucks. I follow the discussions on dpreview and some other photographer forums and see what users try to make work somehow just to save money on software...they would not buy IMatch for 89US$ and neither for the normal price.

The only thing that could work would be a "Lite" version of IMatch which limits the number of files you can manage.
Say, 50,000 files max for the Lite version, for a price of only 49,-$

Or, why not a "Free" version which manages up to 10,000 files. This could also serve as a trial version, without limit.

But I would need to spent a lot of brain juice on how to make that safe and hacker-proof. Because providing such a version would be an invitation for hackers to circumvent the file limit to break the software open and to use it with any number of files.

[jarraun]

Just a suggestion, indeed no one knows your business better than you. Thank you.

[sinus]

Photography is a real money shaker for non profit hobbyist as me, I think I can´t afford to spend 75 € every 18 months in a DAM.
I´am asking myself how many Imatch costumers are there thinking the same and be quiet....?

Best wishes
Javier

Of course there are people out, who cannot affort 75 Euro every 18 month in a DAM.
But for such people there are free DAMS out, not that sophisticated as IMatch, but free.

75 €, you say in 18 months (I did not check this), that would mean,  roughly 4 € every month for IMatch, for a great DAM.
Well, depends on the country, where you live, here in the expenisve Switzerland this means every month a coffee. Or a beer (depends of course, where you buy it).

In other countries this is maybe 2 or even 3 coffees worth.

From my point of view, I hope, you can afford IMatch further, but to be honest, 4 bucks every month for such a DAM is really affordable for most interested people, and what I like also, it is not a price for every year, I mean, you can for example now still work a long time with IMatch 2019, in the future without official support, but if IMatch works, then it works rocksolid, also without support. And what we have seen here on the forum, if someone has questions for older IMatch-versions, they get nevertheless mostly answers.

From my point of view, IMatch is worth every cent. 

Not to mention about the cool and super support from Mario himself and other forum-members.
Try to ask such a question like you did, for another software and I am sure, mostly you will get not answer.

And then see, what Mario answered here, that is part of a very good culture of support, included in IMatch.

[Stefan]

I also believe that someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money, doesn't need to update frequently ... neither the DAM nor the image processing tool. And especially if all the fancy new features are not needed then why upgrading on a 18 months base? Keep the software for 5 years and longer if there is no need for the latest and greatest.

[Mario]

I also believe that someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money, doesn't need to update frequently ... neither the DAM nor the image processing tool. And especially if all the fancy new features are not needed then why upgrading on a 18 months base?

Absolutely. There are still hundreds of IMatch 3 users out there 

On the other hand, support and future versions of IMatch depend on me making sufficient income to cover the cost. If I lose money, I stop and work on something that makes money. Easy as that.

There are features in IMatch (and virtually all modern software) which depend on 3rd party formats or services.
New RAW formats are introduced which require changes in IMatch. New metadata, which requires ExifTool updates and matching adjustments in IMatch.

3rd party services used in the Map Panel, for reverse geocoding, in the AutoTagger etc. change over time and require changes in IMatch to stay compatible with whatever Google, Microsoft, HERE, Amazon, Clarifai or imagga do... For example, I've just had to change HERE map integration because HERE introduced a new authentication schema. Old keys still work with the old scheme, but new users get different credentials which need to be handled differently by IMatch.

I need to keep track of that and adapt IMatch as needed to keep it working smoothly.
Naturally, I don't do that for legacy versions, only for the current product generation.

Keep the software for 5 years and longer if there is no need for the latest and greatest.

What you say here is precisely the reason why the big software houses (like Adobe) switch to a forced subscription-only model.
Only then they can guarantee a steady revenue stream for their investors.

People working with a Photoshop version several years out of date...bah - no way!
That does not make money for Adobe and is no longer tolerated.

While the annual 120$ or so for Photoshop/Lr seem affordable, it seems to work extremely well for Adobe. They have tripled (!) their revenue since introducing (forcing) the subscription model.
Now that the big market-dominating software houses have introduced people to the concept, smaller houses will follow.
In the end, all we do is rent stuff, but never own stuff anymore.

[Jingo]

In the end, all we do is rent stuff, but never own stuff anymore.

For some software - this is a bonus actually.  Imagine having to work on a temporary project and being able to subscribe to software for only a month... rather than pay hundreds of dollars for a product you may never use again, you pay a rental fee, use the software and then cancel the subscription.  Not a bad option... subscription methods have their good/bad.  Same for those that don't stick with a single RAW converter for example... just in case something amazing comes along next month.

IMatch is of course a bargain for all you get.... happy to pay the price for ownership!