Adobe doesn’t think that its marginal cost of producing another copy of the software is low.
Just a terminology note. Adobe might wish that customers conflate marginal and average costs, but there’s no reason for us to play along. Their average costs are indeed substantial. The marginal cost for a copy is the difference between the cost to make n copies and n+1 -- which is negligible for software.
If Adobe believed that the market would not respect the use of average cost rather than marginal cost, it wouldn’t make the software because it could not reasonably anticipate recovering its costs and making a profit.
I’m not saying that Adobe has a “right” to make a profit. I’m saying that there are consequences to the position “Adobe has no right to make a profit.”
Yes. I agree with you entirely about prices and profits.
My only reason for commenting is that I wanted to clarify the meaning of the terms “average cost” and “marginal cost”. The former includes amortized costs, the latter doesn’t.
Just a terminology note. Adobe might wish that customers conflate marginal and average costs, but there’s no reason for us to play along. Their average costs are indeed substantial. The marginal cost for a copy is the difference between the cost to make n copies and n+1 -- which is negligible for software.
If Adobe believed that the market would not respect the use of average cost rather than marginal cost, it wouldn’t make the software because it could not reasonably anticipate recovering its costs and making a profit.
I’m not saying that Adobe has a “right” to make a profit. I’m saying that there are consequences to the position “Adobe has no right to make a profit.”
Yes. I agree with you entirely about prices and profits.
My only reason for commenting is that I wanted to clarify the meaning of the terms “average cost” and “marginal cost”. The former includes amortized costs, the latter doesn’t.