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The point blank answer to why nistune software costs is still the same reason, its not product specific. While you do have to have nistune to tune a nistune board, you dont have to have a nistune board to use the nistune board to tune with the nistune software.
Nistune dont state that ist a replacement for a standalone although many users do Q it as that.
UpRev defenatially does say its a replacement. I see their points but I see yours too, free software goes hand in hand with a standalone so thats still comparing apples and oranges.
(Me just speaking my mined here, and is not a suggestion im going to submit as its none of my business honestly how my franchise runs things)
Maybe a free license that is ONLY good for nistune equipped ecus and will not operate on a non equipped ecu would be a good idea if it were by request/application only for tuning shops.
With that said I wouldnt think it would be fair to paid license holders if free license holders got special pricing on boards or user licenses for their customers. I also dont think they should be listed as dealers, but I would see no problem with them being listed as a tuner.
There are many shops that have purchased licenses and even programmers but get their boards from us. They have no interest in emmulating or profiting on hardware. A free license to them may boost sales on boards possibly.
At the same time I think tacking on a price tag with software helps ensure the tuning shop does some reasearch. No one is going to spend that kind of money unless they make sure they know how to use it first. It would be really hard for people in australia to make sure people in other countries are qualified to use their software and if they arnt and a bunch of engines start popping when being used on nistune by bad tuners it could mean a bad name for nistune as a whole.
I honestly can see both sides, but the current way really seems to be working well as of now. When NIStune becomes a more "house hold" name for nissan tuning it would be a safer business move then to make it more open source once its more responsibly proven to the masses.
There is a shop here in nashville that charged a guy $600 for a tune on a nistune setup and it runs like total crap. Nothing wrong with the poor guys setup, the tuners just didnt do enough research (as well as the car owner possibly since if he would have googled he would have found us...). He has found us now though.
Anyways with that example, such a good shop getting a license for free would have been (and was) a bad thing. They used the customers software so it didnt cost them anything, and they didnt read anything about its operations and were un able to tune his car because they were learning while charging him at the same time.
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