Discussion of September Announcement

Since they’re using Google Cloud offerings I don’t expect they own any servers. They’ve probably contracted for a certain machine profile and as demand ramps up, Google spins up a new virtual machine matching that profile. They likely have throughout parameters that trigger automatic server provisioning and when demand drops, Google drops instances.

The new “supercomputer” capacity is likely just a new higher performance server profile that will get instances spun up or down based on demand.

With typical cloud implementations the customer only pays for compute used.

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Extraordinarily unlikely. Why would they lie about that?

Here’s the wholesale pricing, you can see for yourself: https://cloud.google.com/compute/all-pricing. Note the higher-end machines are orders of magnitude more expensive. And Glowforge probably uses some specialized GPU processing, which gets even more costly.

Part of the whole point of cloud services is that you (as in Glowforge) can spin up and spin down servers very quickly to accommodate demand. So most likely they’re not paying for idle machines, and it’s not a big deal from a system administration standpoint, because that’s exactly how modern software is deployed.

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No, I’m pretty sure they are on different platforms. (I remember someone asking one of the GF folks recently about it.)

You’re right! Where did September go? :smile:

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I’d really like a bit of clarification on one particular line in the summary above, since (based on my read ) it is not specifically mentioned in the announcement.

Does this mean that we are allowed to sell printed copies of the designs that are free with the subscription, or is this granting a broader license to sell other items that have been printed?

(And if that is the case, does that mean that we’re NOT licensed to do so with other items, such as ones we have created? I don’t think that’s what is intended, but I’d like some clarification.)

Separately, while a discounted price of $14.99 / month is not bad, It’s higher than I (as a rather casual user of late) would like to pay. I’ll still probably do it, at least for now, but the likelihood that I cancel is far greater at that price.

I have to say there is no way I’d end up paying $50 / month, especially when the entire Adobe Creative Suite license price is $52.99 / month.

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What’s concerning is there have been dozens of people having issues with their GF being slow to load or home over the past few weeks. And now we are hearing that in order to keep the speeds we have now, we have to pay for this fast lane correct?

I am concerned with the reliability of the machines I have seen countless customers have similar hardware issues with the glowforge units. And with an refusal to provide anything but email only support it is troublesome. With people having issues weeks after receiving there machine and then struggling with support, it would have been nice to see changes or announcements in these areas. Is chat and phone support going to be a premium feature as well? Because it might be an easier pill to swallow if we knew we could get live answers for hardware issues.

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They didn’t BUY supercomputers; they pay fees to use Google Cloud for processing. The fees are higher for the fastest processors.

I guess you missed last month’s announcement. That’s very close to verbatim. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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No. The recent move to faster processing for everyone isn’t going away; this is just another step up for the premium users.

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Phone support is exponentially more expensive to provide. The cost of our machines would have to be a LOT higher to support that.

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What a crock of CRAP! Pay $5000 for something then they want us to pay $50 more a month . . . I don’t do Adobe subscription and I refuse to pay for this! Ri-Dam-Diculous

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It has to do with the fee tiers they pay for Google Cloud processing. Premium users’ processing will be done on the higher-speed servers that cost Glowforge more to use.

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How about those of us that helped you from the kickstarter get this for the life of the machine for free? I waited forever on this thing, and was shocked how bare bones it remained for so long… In the beginning you also spoke of us being able use other software eventually with it? I mean, I went pro and waited years… or at least offer me a yearly price I can work with… Right now idk about adding a subscription to something I can’t use right now, was furloughed this year due to covid and money has been tight. Back at work for now but things are slow. I love the idea but you are leaving a bunch of us out in the cold that funded you in the very beginning!!! I’m a brand loyal customer and always buy proof grade, have been overall happy with my investment, but really sad it lacks a basic coordinate system, everything is based on scaling… like what about some gcode type stuff. I want a 3x3 square but by the time I draw it up and import it it’s 2.950? It’s been a rough day and I just found out about this, I’d love to subscribe but don’t see that being a reality for me between now and November…

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I have not received my Glowforge yet, but I have purchased it. Am I eligible for these perks? When I go to Dashboard I get the “Welcome to Glowforge, Which applies to you” Will I be able to see the new Premium banner?

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I want to make sure everyone understands this:

Dan didn’t bring it up this time, but he did in the last announcement…this is not all that there will be in the Premium category. They are working on additional improvements that will be released as they are tested. It will continue to get better and better.

At the 70% discount, I would give serious consideration to subscribing to the Premium service. It’s $15 a month with the coupon, and there is only a 30 day window to lock in that price for yourself. We will all get to continue to use it and test it free of charge for the rest of the month.

If you don’t use the coupon, the price will be $50 a month. And you might decide later that you want what is being offered.

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I don’t 100% disagree but when you have machines failing at 4-6 weeks from delivery, email only support is an awful experience to give someone. If GF is trying to boost the image this would be an easy fix. I have implemented phone support in to existing service models and when done correctly it chat/phone support can be done without incurring a large upfront cost.

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Im sorry, but this here is not in the best interest of your customers. Look. I get you need another rev model as just hardware is not the only move you want to be in. Got it. And I will admit. I have used the outline feature as well. But $50 a month is not only excessive, it is almost criminal.

Your jazzing it up by giving it away for 15 for legacy users. Ok. But your over-valuing the software like companies who go on shark tank with a $10 million dollar valuation, when the company is actually worth 500K. You have a product, a decent product. You want to monetize your sass. Hey nothing wrong with that. But $50 is criminal. MAX you would be able to convince most consumers is $20 a month. Consider $50 a month is still $600 a year. To excessive for a SASS with no where near enough value. Your not Adobe. Your not Microsoft.

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The end of 2020 isn’t the time to make the announcement that you can lock in this price now or pay alot later, I mean it’s at a time when the government is providing stimulus checks to the masses

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You’re probably covered Stanley, but if you are having trouble getting signed in, start a new thread in the Problems and Support section of the forum so someone can help you get the machine set up and running.

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Depends on the demographic you’re addressing. The people in need of those stimulus checks are highly unlikely to own laser cutters.

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exactly, but that’s from our side of things. From a business aspect it is a prefect time, they want a new revenue stream. Can you think of a better solution to bringing in more $.

that’s nonsense, I am friends with several people that took this as a hobby/side gig to design and make products because they are hurting for $$ or hours or work etc. but it also doesn’t help when they spend the 6k and then have to have a machine down weeks after receiving it.

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