You've spent years developing your product and its market. People, without much regret, pay hundreds of dollars to buy it. Everything gets better with each successive version as you add more and more functionality. Many have tried, but no one can even really dent your appeal or share. You've done so well at becoming the gold standard that your product name has become a verb. Your biggest problem is not adoption, but rather piracy. Seems like you have a winning business model. Enter Web 2.0 where traditional software companies could not afford to match your truly impressive feature set--needed to challenge you at retail--a couple of guys with little or no funding can now duplicate the core functionality that accounts for the bulk of actual usage. Your lock on the retail market that worked so well for so long means nothing when Web distribution lets the upstarts go straight to the user.
With Our Sincerest Apologies to the Prairie Dogs
What's happening? Have business leaders suddenly abdicated control? Are meeting financial expectations overtaking common sense and good business judgment? Or, have corporations lost touch with their customers?
Innovation: The Real Thing
Throughout the history of the tech industry, one of its guiding beliefs has been a faith in the power of innovation--that the company building the best mousetrap will win. But as outsourcing and web technologies continue to drive change, we're starting to see the rise of tech businesses that specialize in business process rather than innovation. Innovativeness itself is a commodity to be managed through economic forces, rather than a craft to be nurtured.
SaaS vs. Web Applications
Last year I wrote about the communication gap between the saas (software as a service) and web application communities. The quick summary of the gap is that they're both dealing …
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong
The first rule of Internet marketing is: Be genuine. Microsoft just launched a new version of its Zune music player, including an online community. Bill Gates has a personal profile in the community. Here's what the New York Times wrote about it...
Security Fears Limit Growth of Web Apps
The rise of web applications -- websites that replace the functions of a software program that was traditionally installed on a personal computer -- is one of the hottest topics in the tech industry. Huge numbers of "Web 2.0" startups are competing for user attention, and many observers predict rapid growth for web applications. But most of the analysts refer to web application growth as something that's going to happen in the future. The reality is that web app usage has already stretched far beyond early adopters, and is moving rapidly into the mainstream of US home computer users. A recent survey, conducted by Rubicon Consulting, showed that more than a third of them already use at least one web application on a regular basis. Students are moving especially fast, with more than 50% using web applications.
The Sub-PC
The cancellation of the Palm Foleo marks the latest in a long string of failed attempts to create a market for keyboard-based devices that are smaller, simpler, and cheaper than personal computers. Computer companies have been trying to make sub-PCs work since the 1980s, but the only place they have been a major success is in Japan, where the complexities of typing in Japanese encouraged many people to buy cheap word processors instead of typewriters.
What's your Company's Arrogance Quotient?
I don’t know anybody who likes being called arrogant. Yet, recently, it happened to me. And I found myself experiencing four parts of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of death: This got me to thinking. What is arrogance? What is corporate arrogance? And other than being somewhat irritating, is it really a problem?
What’s your Company’s Arrogance Quotient?
I don’t know anybody who likes being called arrogant. Yet, recently, it happened to me. And I found myself experiencing four parts of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of death: This got me to thinking. What is arrogance? What is corporate arrogance? And other than being somewhat irritating, is it really a problem?
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