Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Ancestry releases FTM 2008 (updated post)

The speed of the Internet is amazing. Trying to make timely announcements is difficult and trying to publish a scoop is nearly impossible. Fortunately, the speed of the Internet also makes it possible to be informed of one's mistakes. So here is "take 2" of this post.   --The Insider Staff

FTM 2008 Logo.Ancestry.com announced today the release of Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2008. The large number of new features comes with a price. During the beta, users of previous versions of FTM complained about the huge disparity in user interaction from previous versions. New users, however, are likely to experience greater satisfaction than new users of previous versions.

Users who previously purchased FTM as an inexpensive method of obtaining an Ancestry.com subscription may also be disappointed. FTM 2008/Ancestry.com bundles will be available in October through retail outlets with Ancestry.com subscriptions for 1, 3 and 6 months with list prices of $29.95, $69.95 and $99.95, respectively. Since an annual Ancestry subscription is currently available online for $12.95 a month, it only makes sense to purchase FTM 2008 at list price if you want FTM.

Perhaps another time we'll explore more about FTM 2008, including which bundle to purchase, and what discounts are being offered by retailers.

Family Tree Maker 2008 is available now at the Ancestry Store for $39.95, which includes a 14-day subscription to Ancestry.com.

1 comment:

  1. It's amazingly disappointing how radically they've changed the product - it's not even the same software, it's a new program designed to take some features from the old and to be a tool for databasing Ancestry.com data and selling Ancestry subscriptions.

    The Ancestry subscription bundling was the main reason to but the Deluxe or Collectors Edition and they've removed that incentive.

    With new sites like Footnote, World Vital Records, and other sites like FamilySearch.com due for major updates soon, and the tons of free info coming online in Google Books and others we sites it looks like TGN could be shooting themselves in the foot with higher than average prices, less focus on free databases, and by alienating their old customers with bad pricing model and an inferior new software product that loses more features than it gains.

    I'll wager that Ancestry's prices start to fall this year unless they're very successful at luring in a new customer base. It's a shame that they seem so out of touch at a time when genealogy seems to be picking up a lot of momentum online.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.