I'm a bit late to the recent discussions on Rev Media--just got a chance to browse the archive. Here's my view, and an additional idea.
I think these concepts--Rev Express, Dreamcard, Rev Media--are fairly creative, neat, fun, etc. I'm sure they have lots of good points. The junior product keeps changing frequently, but I guess that's okay. I haven't tried these in depth, so this is just my opinion about basic stated features and limitations. But I think there are a few drawbacks in the model. One is not being able to create a standalone. At the old Dreamcard price (I think it was about $100--I'm going to round off the prices to be easier on the eye), that could be a bit of a downer. RealBasic Standard at about $100, for example, does create standalones. The new price of about $50 for Rev Media is one approach of helping with that issue. And I think it's probably a good approach. (However, why make the backdrop an issue? If it doesn't create standalones then there's already a big incentive to upgrade. I suppose it would tend to limit what is distributed with it--you don't usually see utilities with mandatory backdrops, for example. Then again, you don't usually see utilities that require a player to run, either!) The other major drawback is how far up you have to go in order to get a Rev product that does make standalones. Minimum is $300 for Studio, which is developing on one platform, although deploying on all. Between $50 for a product that requires a player, and $300 for one that builds standalones, that's a considerable empty space. And suddenly with the first product that builds standalones, you already have one that deploys on all platforms. There's nothing gradual. What if someone just wants to develop on one platform and doesn't need the rest? Or wants to get into Rev gradually, and work on his or her preferred platform first before expanding, but wants standalones? Or the person that wants more than one platform but would prefer to debug and compile from each platform and doesn't need the cross-build feature and some other advanced features such as database access? So, right now it seems to me that there's a large unfilled gap in the product line--something similar to the RealBasic Standard I mentioned, a product that would run on one platform per license, but would make standalones for that platform. (To differentiate from Studio, some advanced features could also be limited. Currently, judging from the Tools Overview page, that would include the learning pack and SQL database access. Some additional adjustments might be needed--the "intermediate" Rev product should not be too crippled, and should be sufficient for most normal uses, so these should be considered carefully, advanced or new features that create considerable incentive for Studio and Enterprise rather than cut too much from the intermediate product. There's a good balance to be found.) The Rev Media type of product is covering a whole range of interesting uses and interested users, but I seriously bet there is also a whole range of people that Rev is missing out on because of that product gap in comparison to other offerings. That could be a large group that is missing out on Rev and vice versa! If they want standalones but need a lower entry price, then they may look over the product line options and quickly decide to look elsewhere. Besides the cross-platform crowd, that would also open up the door to attract more of those who are currently developing on one platform using tools in that price range. I believe that represents a lot of potential users out there. I would recommend introducing something with similar benefits and pricing/updates, to be competitive in that area and get another whole set of users into the Rev world. But also keep the Rev Media type product, to appeal to its own set of users, which is a different set and should be considered separately in its own right. That's my suggestion. :-) Curry _______________________________________________ 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
