cost, but no additional revenue ? For a big customer, that is paying
hefty yearly fees, it is obvious to do this investment, but for a
small customer ...

Two motivations play here with the fixed fee:
1. We already got the money, so why should we bother?
2. We should at least bother enough or make it appear so, so we can
motivate our fees for next year.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

Seems very logical. Those who pay extra for extra work, will get extra
work delivered. Those who rely on the 1-year support for a fixed fee
will get what remains. IMHO this is best resolved with just charging
hourly: you pay for what you actually got ...

Then you are in a consultancy like scenario. Let's just hope you wont
pay full charges for 3 engineers: 1 experienced and 2 trainees; as some
big IT consultancy firms tend to do... :)

Both have their disadvantages, but if you can trust the company in the
2nd option, I would tend to agree that this might offer you better value
for your money.

** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/