U.S. Software Policy
Software obsolescence is often a concern when purchasing software-based instrumentation. Heidelberg Engineering has taken steps to protect customer investment in our products and to clearly identify when additional charges for product changes may apply.
In general, the company provides minor upgrades (updates) during the life of the product at no charge. These types of changes help sustain the product, eliminate minor bugs, and add functions to keep up with other changes in the computer world.
In other cases, the company makes significant investment to create new methods of analysis which may involve a charge due to the development costs. We refer to these as “major upgrades”.
Listed below are our policies in defining the differences between those upgrades which are free and those which may involve a charge.
Major Upgrade
A major upgrade is defined as a release with a different major version number, such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc. A major upgrade involves major changes typically including one or more of the following:
- the addition of significant new functions or analyses
- the introduction or expansion of normative data for use with existing or new analysis
16-week Upgrade Policy
As a company committed to continuous innovation and product enhancement, we offer a 16-week upgrade policy to protect your investment. If a new software version (major upgrade) is released within 16 weeks of your equipment installation date (or software-only ship date) you are eligible to purchase the major upgrade for the difference between the prices of the two versions.
For example, if you bought a version on February 1 for $10 and a new version is released between February 1 and May 23 for $11, your cost for the major upgrade will be $1 [new version price – old version price]. If the major upgrade is the same price as the version you own, the major upgrade is free.
Sequential major upgrades, (ie you own version 1.0 and the major upgrade is version 2.0) are typically offered at approximately 50% of the price of the new full version software. Major upgrades that are not sequential, (ie you own version 1.0 and the major upgrade is version 3.0) are typically offered at the full version software price. The major upgrade purchase includes the software only, and does not include onsite installation or additional training. Onsite installation and training will be available for an additional price. New versions of software may require a computer upgrade for an additional price.
Minor Upgrade
A minor upgrade is defined as a release with the same major version number, but an incremental minor or patch number. For example, if 2.0.0 is the major upgrade (version), then 2.0.1, 2.1.0, 2.2.0, etc are all minor upgrades of version 2.0.0. Minor upgrades generally include no significant new functionality or analyses and are released to address minor bug fixes, efficiency enhancements and other minor workarounds.
Minor upgrades and installation instructions can be downloaded for free from the Internet by any user holding a registered license for the product’s major release. If you prefer to receive a copy of a minor upgrade by mail, there will be a small shipping and handling fee. If you have a license for version 1.2.0 of a product, you can upgrade to any 1.x.x version, but you cannot upgrade to a 2.x.x version. To go from a 1.x.x version to a 2.x.x version typically requires a major upgrade charge (see Major Upgrade policy above).