Thanks - I'm back to this method after Googlesync (which looked promising at first) has literally fallen off the face of the Earth in terms of reliability.

Nearly everyone misses the point of these "upgrades" re-packaged as new. I'll wait until the next 40 app developers jump on this bandwagon and release "new upgrades" for a fee then I bet the tone changes. The only reason it is sympathetic now is that this is really the first app to pull this stunt.

And what about the non-technical people who read about Tweetie and go to download Tweetie 1 not understanding that it's essentially dead and that they should have bought Tweetie 2.

Not drinking this Kool Aid -- and I think Apple will very quickly come out with a policy to stop these shenanigans. They won't allow the App store to be clutter with a bunch of abandoned early versions of essentially the same application.

In my opinion this is more than a $2.99 issue.

What if suddenly ALL of your apps were being released as xxxxx 2.0 and considered a brand new program with a new fee?

I think Patrick's raising an excellent point and it's more than a "hey Mr Big Spender cough up a measly $3". What happens when iPhone growth isn't what it is today (this WILL happen). Suddenly will all your apps become abandonware and you're expected to buy the next version?

Logically what's going to have to occur is either people are ok with upgrades that aren't free -- or there has to be some type of subscription mechanism.

Palm controlled the media very well by distributing review devices to those sites they could count on for a muted message (neither too negative or too over the top).

It's possible that Palm will wait on their marketing until new Apple devices are released and their specs are final. This eliminates the risk that Palm pushes Pre as the smartphone that multi-tasks and then Apple comes out with a way for theirs to do so as well.

I agree - this was an odd launch and I have not seen a single post in any forum (which I've been checking today) trading information about which stores have them in stock or when they will be in....which is usually not a good sign for built up demand.

At least one of my clients also received an offer for one free support case if they went easy pay.

Is there a monthly fee for easy pay? I seem to recall having read somewhere that it was $5/mo fee but I can't recall where or if that is correct information.

Steve -

I just heard from Sage and there will be an Interim Release disk available to fix the 941 and also NJ tax law issues.

It sounds like they will make two separate fixes available so if a payroll user doesn't need them both they only load what they need.

Sage is presently putting these through quality testing and expects to set them free in the wild shortly.

What I tell my clients who are considering moving off MAS 90 or renewing a license is ---

Consider whether you could live without specific functionality that you're getting now in MAS 90.

In some instances the answer is yes -- and the client moves.

In others, once they think, their answer is NO that they can't live without MAS so they license that extra copy.

This is especially true for people with a lot of data who don't want to convert and lost history as well as anyone with custom reporting or inventory needs.

I may have stretched my scholastic abilities a little bit -- let's say I survived

I was surprised to see this come out as a Service Update as opposed to an Interim Release - although maybe Sage will start doing this because I found it very difficult to track which Interim Releases clients had already installed versus Service Updates.

Actually it wasn't difficult - it was damn near impossible.

Update - I was unable to secure a sample page to show you. As a matter of fact the contact person emailed me as if I'd just stepped off a space ship and walked into their office to request such a thing.

Apparently the concept of providing their customers with a sample of what they're selling is foreign.

A few people have contacted me to ask where they can get these guides....