Why isn't Rev more popular?

[Phil Davis]

Thanks for the balance, Richard.

Phil Davis


Richard Gaskin wrote:
> 
> Pondering the many posts in this thread I'm not sure I could contribute 
> much of value, since Chipp covered many of my own thoughts, esp. re. the 
> usefulness of a US presence and the need for a completely unambiguous 
> differentiation between the pro and hobbyist products.
> 
> But I did have one thought that I hadn't read here yet:
> 
> 
>     Just how popular does Rev need to be?
> 
> 
> RunRev Ltd. has been doing a good job of expanding the user base, as 
> evidenced by the many newcomers on this list over the last year (and a 
> hearty welcome to y'all!).  And it seems they have plans in store to 
> continue along those lines, perhaps even more effectively in this coming 
> year than ever before.
> 
> But given the various factors that go into choosing programming tools, 
> I'm not sure Rev will ever become the world leader, nor need it be.
> 
> If we look at the downstream economy from Rev-based products, taking 
> into account the aggregate sum of all cost savings to developers, 
> publishers, and end-users, there's certainly plenty of money floating 
> around to keep the engine well updated and enhanced in perpetuity. 
> That's great for us.
> 
> And as long as RunRev Ltd. is appropriately "right-sized" (please pardon 
> the corporate-speak), there's no reason why it can't be quite profitable 
>  for the owners, even at the current audience size.  Extra bonus points 
> that the audience is growing as well as it is.  That's great for them.
> 
> Given the state of things as they are today, I see less of a risk of Rev 
> not growing fast enough than I do in attempting to grow beyond what the 
> market will support.
> 
> It's really easy to spend money trying to be the next Macromedia, and so 
> much work to do so that it may be easy to overlook that there already is 
> one, and to overlook the many historical opportunities which helped 
> bring them to where they are, circumstances that are not reproducible 
> today (such as having the world's first plugin bundling agreement for 
> Flash).
> 
> Sure, there may be a temptation for the owners to try to make billions, 
> and there is an attraction for us users if Rev took over the world so we 
> could say "I told you so" to everyone else. :)
> 
> But there's plenty of money available to profitably support what the 
> engine needs to keep moving forward, even now.
> 
> For myself, I'm not at all worried about viability or profitability.  My 
> greater concern is about reach.
> 
> Geoffrey Moore talks about market adoption of technologies in his books 
> "Crossing the Chasm" and "Inside the Tornado".  I won't get into the 
> details here (but would encourage any software publisher to read these 
> twice), but the most relevant concept here is how in a technology market 
> there will be only one leader, and all other players must subdivide the 
> remainder.  Given the power of larger firms like Microsoft I doubt Rev 
> will ever overtake tools like VB.  If the good folks at RunRev 
> understand the rules of engagement for being a lower-tier player, they 
> can do well.  But if they attempt to take over the world, they risk 
> exhausting all resources in the effort.
> 
> Thus far I've seen only healthy growth activities that don't yet 
> evidence a desire to reach beyond what is possible.  I just hope they 
> don't take everything posted here too seriously and start distracting 
> themselves from their reachable goals to go tilting at windmills.
> 
> There is only one market leader, but there are many highly profitable 
> companies at all levels of participation.
> 
> -- 
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Managing Editor, revJournal
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