Vote to disable password protection for revMedia 4 stacks

[Paul Looney]

Bill,
A very good and thoughtful analysis. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Paul Looney

On Aug 25, 2009, at 12:37 PM, William Marriott wrote:

> There are many reasons why we opted to make revMedia a free  
> product. I'll detail some of them here:
>
> 1) Students. To be candid, the greatest source of our current  
> customers is former HyperCard users. This community is aging, and  
> we must appeal to the next generations. Students, especially those  
> in high school, often do not have credit cards. So we want to make  
> it easy for them, as individuals, to acquire a great tool to learn  
> programming -- and enjoy both immediate and long-term results/ 
> success. On a broader level, we want to make it very easy for  
> schools and other educational groups to teach Rev to students. Free  
> enables that.
>
> 2) Ubiquity. We definitely want revlets popping up all over the  
> place. We'll be crafting nice "made with Rev" badges and other  
> sorts of programs to encourage the viral distribution of Rev-based  
> content. One of our greatest challenges right now is simple  
> awareness. People don't know we exist, much less our distinct  
> benefits relative to other Web coding options. Adobe and Microsoft  
> have enormous advantages in this arena. Adobe Flash is available on  
> just about every platform out there, including some mobile ones.  
> Microsoft Silveright benefits from a vast installed base of .NET  
> Programmers and their usual marketing machine. Anyone going to a  
> Microsoft page gets prompted to install Silverlight, for example.  
> Our advantage in being free lets people spend the time to learn our  
> capabilities and produce great content with our tool.
>
> 3) Great content everyone can see. We have witnessed some truly  
> amazing Rev solutions over the years, but we need more of them.  
> Increasing the number of people using Rev ensures we will get fresh  
> blood, new ideas, beautiful graphics, innovative applications.  
> We're hard at work at renovating services like revOnline (like we  
> did in 3.5) to make it easier for people to share and promote thier  
> Rev-based work. Furthermore, it's far easier [and safer] for  
> newcomers to see Rev in action when they can just click a couple  
> times to install a plugin, then enjoy fast revlet downloads, as  
> opposed to downloading and extracting/installing a standalone  
> application.
>
> 4) It's 2009 and the Web is all about FREE. As Richard Gaskin has  
> pointed out, the dollar cost of a license is the smallest expense  
> associated with using a new product. What is truly expensive is  
> time, attention, and effort. In order to earn consideration, we  
> need to rethink how people learn about our product. A free trial  
> version isn't enough; 30 days isn't enough. 10 lines isn't enough.  
> However, a nicely capable free edition (revMedia) that publishes to  
> the Web (today's most relevant "platform") is a great way to get  
> people into the "Rev lifestyle" and our unique mindset of programming.
>
> 5) Revenue. It's a numbers game, and we already know a certain  
> percentage of people who get our trial version buy the product; a  
> certain number of people who buy revMedia upgrade to revStudio; a  
> certain number of revStudio users upgrade to revEnterprise.  
> Increase the number of people using Rev, and you increase the  
> number of people buying Rev. We do not expect there to be any  
> cannibalization of revStudio or revEnterprise sales, as these  
> products have distinct capabilities for serious/professional users,  
> such as: database facilities, the data grid, the ability to use  
> externals, the ability to remove/replace RunRev branding on the  
> loading screen; the ability to make true standalone apps for  
> Windows, Mac, and Linux, etc.
>
> As you might imagine, we've done a considerable amount of number  
> crunching, analysis, and planning on this front... it's not really  
> about philosophy. We're confident this is the best path to  
> dramatically grow our user base and ensure a vibrant future for  
> revTalk, a language we all have come to love and rely on.
>
> - Bill
>   RunRev marketing guy
>
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