[Ticket#: 2006040510000641] Re: [OT] Articles to read

[Richard Gaskin]

Steve Knox wrote:

> On Apr 6, 2006, at 6:36 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote: 
>> It didn't seem to me that he was claiming that people don't exist,  
>> but merely that inventing a phrase to describe them which  
>> ultimately turns out to be roughly synonymous with "everyone who  
>> uses Rev" may not be as useful for strategic planning as existing  
>> language other successful companies use to describe market segments  
>> and personas.
> 
> Fair enough.  But it struck me that failure to properly identify a  
> subset of users when trying to decide how to properly cater to this  
> subset from a business standpoint is functionally equivalent to  
> declaring them nonexistent. In other words, "We can't define this  
> market, so we'll spend our time on the market we CAN identify".  That  
> was the meaning I received.

Interesting.  I'm glad you wrote that.  I didn't get that impression, 
but I can understand how you did.

Hopefully Lynn will chime in here to clarify his thinking on this.


> This is not to say there isn't big money to be made servicing the  
> enterprise market. 

I wouldn't worry about that. While it's true that the low-end product 
has undergone quite a dynamic evolution from Express to DreamCard to 
Media, the consistency is that interest in that market.

> But where does that leave me?  And if I can't get  
> the warm feeling that future upgrades won't be much less than full  
> enterprise pricing, then I'm not sure I want to commit to this  
> development platform.

If you find Media's strange insistence on leaving its backdrop up too 
annoying, there's a giant gulf between that and Enterprise.  That gulf 
is filled by Studio, which is likely their most popular product given 
its price and features.  The DreamCard to Studio upgrade is only $199.

I don't understand the $49 price point myself, but no one's relying on 
me to find the people who will only pay $49 but still be willing to 
invest many hours learning a proprietary scripting language.  That job 
belongs to someone else....

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  Developer of WebMerge: Publish any database on any Web site
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com