Why isn't Rev more popular?

[Chipp Walters]

OK, my turn and 2 cents worth.

Here are some other reasons why I believe RR is not popular.

1) The company is based in Scotland. It's one thing when your primary 
programming language is owned by Apple, a whole other risk assessment 
when owned by a small company in Scotland.

2) A largely isolationist business strategy by RR corporate. In the US, 
companies rely on building strong strategic relationships with other 
companies to help them get larger. Guy Kawasaki has written about this 
and has been successful in promoting the 'sum is greater than the parts' 
philosophy. RR should build stronger ties with companies who can help 
them promote or use their technology. The recent multi-million dollar 
acquisition of Konfabulator (an inferior technology to RR) by Yahoo only 
points at the fact the company is *not* getting around.

When I was CEO of Human Code, we spent resources doing 'road shows' at 
networking conferences like 'Demo' and others, where industry shapers 
hang out. It helps get noticed. It worked, too. Eventually our company 
was acquired for over 100 million by a major industry IT group.

3) The language is proprietary, and contrary to popular beief, the 
learning curve is steep. This is because of a) a lack of good learning 
resouces (unlike say, Flash or VB or even HyperCard); b) a non-friendly 
first user experience; and c) a hybrid procedural/object-oriented 
approach with a metaphor (cards) not easily understood by programmers as 
it doesn't map to any existing programming paradigm other than perhap 
wizards; and d) a mixed business-logic/content paradigm sort of like 
HTML where display, content are intertwined.

4) Already mentioned here, but a lack of consistent focus on the target 
market. Small companies need to be vertical. Rev is not. They want to be 
all things to all people. They essentially offer the same program to the 
Enterprise programmer, the hobbist, the school teacher, the commercial 
software programmer and the 'inventive user.'

How to fix?

1) Open up an office in the US and call it 'headquarters.'
2) Leverage existing resources (investors) for networking opportunities
3) Create at least 2 'different' products based on DreamCard and Rev 
which have totally different look-and-feel
4) Raise *serious* money if you have to (based on the Konfab deal, this 
shouldn't be too hard).
5) Create more opportunities for users to get involved. Here are a few 
examples of RR's seclusionary strategy:

I've asked if Altuit can build tutorials and have them sold/hosted on 
RevOnline. The answer was 'not at this time' and I believe based on the 
wrong assumption that it would cannibalize sales of their own tutorials.

I've offered to take over the documentation publishing parts of RunRev 
and automate the updating of doc and PDF's and purchasing printed 
reference documents. I even created the tools and demo'ed them to RR for 
free to show how easy it could be. Again answer was 'no.'

I've asked to have RR sell altSQLite for a 33% profit and the answer was 
the profit was not enough based upon their projected sales of altSQLite. 
So, altSQLite is not even listed *anywhere* on their website. Guy 
Kawasaki sold 3rd party plugins for 4D at their website for no profit, 
just to show support for his product and his partners.

Many people have asked about creating a WIKI or other helpful tools and 
instead of embracing the spirit of the helpfullness, RR has 
steadfastedly pulled back.

All said, RR still has more than a few things going for it. It's a great 
platform, plain and simple. The company seems to be solid financial-wise 
(unlike many of the X-talks we've come to know and leave). Things do 
improve, though not at the rate many of us wish them to.

best,

Chipp