>I may be wrong, but it just seems a bit of a rip off. It’s just a bit of software on a DVD.
>

I used to hear the same arguements about Lotus 1-2-3/WordStar/dBaseII, etc. in 1983 when it was somewhere around $595 retail. "Just some diskettes and a manual." Of course, they had payback periods which could be measured in months (frequently weeks). For businesses where a payback period of 2-3 years is excellent (think cost of new warehouse for example), this was an outstanding value.

If you develop a piece of software, do you sell it for the value of the DVD? Or do you consider the man-years it took you to develop it, the size of the potential market, it's potential value to the customer, etc. and price accordingly?

As others have mentioned, there are cheaper (even free) alternatives. They may (or may not) give you the kind of database power you need. But it's NOT "just a bit of software on a DVD"