[Karunamon]

That market can only possibly be diminishing over time. I mean sure, $bigco can afford ~3k/user/year, but eventually, that's gonna dry up.

Charging for basic development tools in 2017 just seems weird, and I'm afraid by the time they realize that the company is dying, the mindshare will be gone, never to return.

[Joeri]

There's no money in devtools for general desktop app development. Embarcadero knows that the only way to grow the delphi userbase is to make it free, so they're instead trying to milk it for all it's worth on the way down.

I had a bit of hope for delphi with mobile app support, but the pricing really killed it now that microsoft offers xamarin for free.

Plus, object pascal is too weird for js coders. C-style syntax is a must, even though object pascal is in many ways a better language.

[dvfjsdhgfv]

I don't agree making it free is the only option. Delphi is now multiplatform. There are several companies with a development tool targeted at just one of these platforms, charging money for it - usually not much, but the subscription model makes it more expensive in the long run. Imagine having just Delphi for Android free. If I could release the same app for iPhone by coughing up $200, why shouldn't I? They could also release a basic version at a very low price, unlocking features in the more expensive editions. Yes, they can actually study the usage cases and examine what extra features are indispensable for current paid customers but could be removed in the basic version without much problem for an average developer. There are so many ways they could play this out, I'm really disappointed they've chose this route.

[zeroc8]

I would happily pay. So would many others. Things do not need to be free, they just need to be priced within reason.

[tonyedgecombe]

Yes it will dry up but by then I expect they will have made a ton of money. This isn't an unusual pattern, I've seen it with a few platforms I've worked with.