Have you noticed how prices of utilities and (developer) add-ons have steadily increased over the years?

Some examples: when Visual Assist was first introduced it cost $99, then $79 and even $49 for some time. Later on, the price climbed back to $79, $99 and recently finally to $129.

Even more interesting is Resharper, newer product in the same category. When it showed up, it cost $99 (luckily, I bought it at that price, and at least the next two upgrades seem to be free). Soon, the price changed to $149 with the announced pricing of $199 for the upcoming version.

I have noticed users complaining about the same trend for general utility applications - small, single-purpose apps now routinely cost $29 while slightly more complex ones easily go for $39, $49 or even $79.

As a future µISV I have mixed feelings about this trend. On one hand, I should be glad that the prices are going up because I might earn more. On the other hand, as Joel nicely shows in this post, pricing the product is not an exact science. I can't but wonder how many of these ISVs are really tracking the influence of the price change on their total earnings.

Seeing how people got upset about Visual Studio pricing which is dirt cheap compared to most of the development add-ons I can't shake off the feeling that something is not right here. However, if users (developers) are buying, this is nothing but a music to my (ISV) ears :)