They're a new entry into the space and with something as "groundbreaking" as Rust their idea is probably to push for better/cheaper up until there is enough seats that they can start charging more once people have invested enough to not want(or be able) to change toolchains.
At that point they not only have locked in customers, they also have them as references for other customers to justify why new customers should pay more (Existing customers will probably be the ones paying least for the longest).
I’m happy to outline our general reasoning of how we arrived at the pricing, though I’ll obviously not go into specifics.
First of all, our competition is the open source rust compiler. Current Ferrocene is a downstream of rust 1.68 and a drop in replacement, so you can develop your project using the open source rust compiler and at the point where certification is required switch. You obviously won’t get support, but the safety manuals and all the certification documentation is open source. The compiler source is also open source, so you can build from our source.
So our offering is essentially the quality management and handling of all the minutiae required to use a compiler in a corporate environment, including LTS support when required, signed installers, management of known issues, certifications, etc.
We could ask for prices an order of magnitude higher if we kept all the documentation closed, but that would mean our customer base is the people that require certification now. We’d rather have a reasonable price point and charge for the work we save the user - which puts a reasonable upper bound on the per seat price. Also, that ship has sailed - as I said, all accompanying documentation is open, which also keeps us honest.
> until there is enough seats that they can start charging more once people have invested enough to not want(or be able) to change toolchains
I can understand how one could have that impression about generic suppliers in the field. However from everything I know about the people at Ferrous Systems, I'd be incredibly surprised if that's a strategy they are pursuing.
At that point they not only have locked in customers, they also have them as references for other customers to justify why new customers should pay more (Existing customers will probably be the ones paying least for the longest).