OK, my turn and 2 cents worth.
Here are some other reasons why I believe RR is not popular.
1) The company is based in Scotland. It's one thing when your primary
programming language is owned by Apple, a whole other risk assessment
when owned by a small company in Scotland.
2) A largely isolationist business strategy by RR corporate. In the US,
companies rely on building strong strategic relationships with other
companies to help them get larger. Guy Kawasaki has written about this
and has been successful in promoting the 'sum is greater than the parts'
philosophy. RR should build stronger ties with companies who can help
them promote or use their technology. The recent multi-million dollar
acquisition of Konfabulator (an inferior technology to RR) by Yahoo only
points at the fact the company is *not* getting around.
When I was CEO of Human Code, we spent resources doing 'road shows' at
networking conferences like 'Demo' and others, where industry shapers
hang out. It helps get noticed. It worked, too. Eventually our company
was acquired for over 100 million by a major industry IT group.
3) The language is proprietary, and contrary to popular beief, the
learning curve is steep. This is because of a) a lack of good learning
resouces (unlike say, Flash or VB or even HyperCard); b) a non-friendly
first user experience; and c) a hybrid procedural/object-oriented
approach with a metaphor (cards) not easily understood by programmers as
it doesn't map to any existing programming paradigm other than perhap
wizards; and d) a mixed business-logic/content paradigm sort of like
HTML where display, content are intertwined.
4) Already mentioned here, but a lack of consistent focus on the target
market. Small companies need to be vertical. Rev is not. They want to be
all things to all people. They essentially offer the same program to the
Enterprise programmer, the hobbist, the school teacher, the commercial
software programmer and the 'inventive user.'
How to fix?
1) Open up an office in the US and call it 'headquarters.'
2) Leverage existing resources (investors) for networking opportunities
3) Create at least 2 'different' products based on DreamCard and Rev
which have totally different look-and-feel
4) Raise *serious* money if you have to (based on the Konfab deal, this
shouldn't be too hard).
5) Create more opportunities for users to get involved. Here are a few
examples of RR's seclusionary strategy:
I've asked if Altuit can build tutorials and have them sold/hosted on
RevOnline. The answer was 'not at this time' and I believe based on the
wrong assumption that it would cannibalize sales of their own tutorials.
I've offered to take over the documentation publishing parts of RunRev
and automate the updating of doc and PDF's and purchasing printed
reference documents. I even created the tools and demo'ed them to RR for
free to show how easy it could be. Again answer was 'no.'
I've asked to have RR sell altSQLite for a 33% profit and the answer was
the profit was not enough based upon their projected sales of altSQLite.
So, altSQLite is not even listed *anywhere* on their website. Guy
Kawasaki sold 3rd party plugins for 4D at their website for no profit,
just to show support for his product and his partners.
Many people have asked about creating a WIKI or other helpful tools and
instead of embracing the spirit of the helpfullness, RR has
steadfastedly pulled back.
All said, RR still has more than a few things going for it. It's a great
platform, plain and simple. The company seems to be solid financial-wise
(unlike many of the X-talks we've come to know and leave). Things do
improve, though not at the rate many of us wish them to.
best,
Chipp
_______________________________________________
use-revolution mailing list
[email protected]
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
