Although I confess to being strictly an enthusiastic non-user of the technical application Mathematica, dating from when I managed a college computer lab, I still enjoy seeing it evolve over time and take on new roles. For example, Wolfram (the company behind it) uses it in a “Math Behind Numb3rs” feature that lets you see demonstrations of the principles that the show’s Charlie Eppes spouts off, which helps to anchor plots to real applied mathematics. And of course, who can forget cofounder’s Theodore Gray’s masterful presentation at the 2002 Macworld Expo when he infused an infectious exuberance into an otherwise lackluster roundup of early Mac OS X developers?

And so I’m befuddled that Wolfram last week launched a Home Edition of its flagship product at the economically tonedeaf price of $259. Seriously? Compare to the varying student Editions, which start at $45 for a Semester Edition license and top out at $140 for a full Standard Edition student license. Of course it compares favorably to the Professional Edition which runs a steep $2,495, but then, how many of those are actually sold to individuals instead of institutions? In the same way that Adobe Photoshop Elements relates to the professional Photoshop and the Creative Suite packages, Wolfram is offering their core tools enhanced with some common-interest tutorials (Decorate Easter Eggs with the Riemann zeta function! Explore the parameterization of Valentine hearts!) And yet they effectively price the average household out of the market, even were we not facing a severe recession and hence curb on extravagant spending.

It might make some sense if this were intended to act as an introductory version of the product for prosumer applications, like Final Cut Express does with the full bundle of Final Cut Studio. But they go so far as to restrict the Home Edition for purely non-commercial home use, stating that it “is not licensed for commercial, nonprofit, academic, or government use.” So what kind of armchair data analyst are they really trying to reach with this expensive yet license-restricted package?