The flaw in LabVIEW Tools Network: VI Package Manager

Question

At first I was impressed with the LabVIEW Tools Network (see here).  Its seemed like a plus for everyone:
- Developers who didn't want to reinvent the wheel, could easily find and download code using the VI Package Manager.
- Developers who want to re-sell their code, could easily package it and sell it via the Tools Network marketplace (similar to the iPhone's App Store).
But then I found the flaw:  The VI Package Manager
Developers (essentially) need to use the VI Package Manager if they want to sell their code ... and it costs $999.  And you'll need to add on the cost of a LabVIEW license ($2k+), of course.  This will surely elimate many coders from participating.  In fact, it'll probably also artificially raise the price of all the SW being sold on the Tools Network.
And by the way:  Why is NI relying on a third-party SW delivery tool for their marketplace at all?  Especially one that costs developers $1k to package their add-on?  Why doesn't NI just build their own VI Package Manager and dump JKI Tools all together?  In this case, building their own Package Manager would make sense for NI.  Cut ot the middle-man.  And after all, didn't NI do this to Endevo when they built their own LVOOP tool (thereby dumping Endevo's GOOP toolkit into oblivion?).
Oh... and need I remind anyone that Apple only charges developers $99 to distribute iPhone apps?  And their development environment is given away totally free.
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Answer 1

Hi
josborne,
Thanks for the feedback on the LabVIEW Tools Network. We wanted to make it easy for developers to share/sell reusable code with eatch other, and make it easier for developers to get their hands on reusable code rather than program everything from scratch. We wanted to build an ecosystem and marketplace for LabVIEW developers.
It sounds like your biggest pain point is the $999 price point for VI Package Manager. We worked with JKI this past year to make package building a feature of the free edition of VIPM 2010, the Community Edition. So you do not need the $999 Professional Edition to create a LabVIEW Add-on. The Pro version does have several nice benefits though, and you can read about these here: http://jki.net/vipm/compare
You also contrasted our program with the Apple Developer Program which gives you the development tools for free (with the $99 program fee). Well, the main difference here is that the development environment for LabVIEW is LabVIEW! (As opposed to Apple where you are developing for the iPhone/iPad). So I don't think we're comparing Apples to Apples (no pun intended). However, we do offer start-up assistance to developers who want to develop LabVIEW Add-ons to further reduce the barrier to entry. More here: Add-on Dev Center - Startup Assistance.
To answer your question about why we chose to go with a third party solution (JKI's VIPM) instead of developing our own - we had several reasons. But I can summarize in one - we had a partner, JKI, who has developed an excellent solution for distributing LabVIEW Code, and was willing to work with us to make the integration with LabVIEW even better, so why create a brand new solution from scratch rather than let them continue to innovate in this area?
By the way, if you haven't seen the integration between the Tools Network and VIPM 2010, you really should give it a try! Here's a sample free Add-on to try - the OpenG Libraries (Click the Download button).
Jervin Justin
NI TestStand Product Manager