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New Product Offerings Releases Versus Versions?
What are the pros and cons of calling new product offerings releases versus versions (or some other term)?
Release and versions are usually two terms for the same concept--so which one you choose is irrelevant--but some companies see them as two elements of a numbering scheme. Most companies use a numbering theme of x.y.z which is used primarily to aid customer support but often has
customer billing ramifications. Many companies provide dot releases (the 'y' or 'z') at no cost but charge an upgrade fee for the 'x'. So changing from 3.2 to 3.3 would have no upgrade fee (and no revenue) while 3.2 to 4.1 would have a charge that results in revenue. In the
latter case, a paid release should have at least one item that people are anxious to buy. (Notice, I didn't say an item that your executive team is anxious to sell). "I want the new phone because of the built-in GPS" or "The new version has full support for XML which is critical
to my job."
I have written more about releases and versioning schemes elsewhere.
Click below to see other resources:
Pragmatic Marketing Publications
Answered by Steve Johnson
