Today's been an exciting day! At long last, BitWise 1.0.2 was released, featuring many enhancements (small and large) over 1.0.1. After the delay last week, it felt really good to finally release it.
One very important change, not related to functionality or features, is the new license agreement with 1.0.2 (retroactive after 30 days to previous versions). Until now, the free BitWise could be used for any purpose, but we can no longer offer such generous usage. Now, non-personal usage of BitWise will require purchasing a Professional Group. Those of you jaded by "big business" might just label it greed, but we debated for quite some time about the changes, and reality won out (not greed). We decided that if you're a business, you're benefiting from BitWise as a service, and it's helping you be more productive (and thus more profitable). As such, you rely on the network, and that network has costs associated with running it. If the costs aren't covered, the network goes down, and then there's no more BitWise, and less productivity. It's a service, like the phone, the T1 lines, or a desktop application--all of which are invaluable business tools.
The other driving aspect is technical support. If you're a home user, we offer community-based support in our forums, where users can assist each other and we can intervene as time allows. In a business setting, you need personal, accurate and timely support. This too has a cost associated with it. Support is a critical part of any package used in business, and you get it with Pro BitWise.
The last thing we want to do is alienate our users, especially those that have attested to BitWise's reliability and usefulness in a business environment. However, in order for us to continue to offer that reliability and usefulness, those benefiting from it need to help us benefit from our work. We priced the Pro BitWise to be affordable and scalable, so we are confident that many business users will find that the cost can be easily justified. The free BitWise will continue to be free, and as stated on our philosophy page, we strongly believe in continuing to offer the free BitWise for personal use. Besides, we have to have a few people to do some alpha and beta testing! :)
This change will help ensure that each and every morning when you get up, you can sign on to powerful, reliable, secure instant messaging, whether you're at home or at the office.