[CodeMage]

I'm not sure how having different editions of the same software hurts users, but maybe I'm just applying a different grade of the same meaning to the word "hurt" ;)

I suppose that the author could let users drive new features by making a list of proposed features and having users donate money towards the implementation of those features. I'm pretty sure I've seen that somewhere. But the segmentation seems to be the easier way.

Going back to the editor example, suppose you have two editors from two different authors; one is cheaper, the other has SFTP feature. The author of the one with the SFTP features put a higher price on the overall development effort than the author of the cheaper one. And he's charging you more than the other author per every copy, even though he coded it only once. Why is this so drastically different from having two editions of the same product from the same author?

To take your logic a step further, why is the author charging money for every copy? Once he coded the whole product, it's done and there are no per-unit shipping or manufacturing costs. The alternative would be to somehow get the money, upfront, that would cover the development costs and net him some fixed profit for it. Who knows, maybe if we could switch to that business model piracy would no longer be an issue. But until then, as long as charging per unit of software is accepted practice, I don't see a difference between two editions of the same product and two products with different features. (And I'm not talking about unscrupulous feature crippling here, that's different)

[billswift]

It increases the price to the users of the "advanced" version, because by keeping 2 versions the seller has to collect AT LEAST enough extra to pay for the increased overhead costs of dealing with 2 versions.