Simon wrote:
"The only thing keeping the Mac around nowadays is Shareware - and Mac OS X
is the only killer app to appear on scene in the last 10 years."
Hmm... I think graphic arts, music, and education (schools) are the ones
keeping Apple going, and OS X is going to bring more developers to the Mac.
But as far as killer apps, how about iMovie?
iMovie is one of the best designed programs ever, IMHO, because it does
something very complicated (video editing), but is extremely easy to use.
Very powerful, AND very easy to use... this is an extremely difficult thing
for a program to accomplish.
OS X will bring many UNIX programs and programmers to the Mac, which is both
good and bad. Good in that it will bring more cool programs to the
platform, bad in that some of those ports will be terribly ugly. As stated
before on this list, UNIX folks think that having a great gui interface
means using more than ONE shade of gray. But anyway... :)
MetaCard should be pitched as a tool that is easy for beginners but will be
able to keep you happy as you grow in ability. Many of us ex-HyperCard
users would still be using it if we hadn't hit the wall with it's
limitations (and there were many.)
MetaCard is expensive, but there's no real competition for what it does
(card-based design that's cross platform and powerful.) The problem is that
it is priced out of reach of general hobbyists, and those are the people who
would really benefit from starting on MetaCard. So the pricing is aimed
squarely at people who can make money with MetaCard (ie programmers), but
who are not already schooled in a different language such as C++. This is,
to my mind, a small market. I think MetaCard needs an influx of newbies,
because the target crowd here is just too small. I'd say that a good way to
do this would be to ditch MetaCard's current price ($995) and charge $499
for it. Then charge $299 for the subscription price. I'd wait until the
Mac OS X version is ready, then spend a little on marketing, and sell
MetaCard for $499. This would grab a ton of HyperCard users, and also some
other newbies, most of which would consider $499 to be expensive but not
unreasonable. The other piece to the puzzle is a beginner's book. But
that's another thread...
:)
Richard MacLemale
Instructional Technology Specialist
James W. Mitchell High School
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