|
Business Insights for
Software Developers and Publishers www.softletter.com |
|
Vol 3. No 2 Announcements Just Released! The Softletter SaaS (Software as a Service) Handbook is now available! Packed with vital information you need to know about the SaaS tsunami. The latest edition of The Softletter Financial Handbook. Over 360 pages of strategic data for your software company. Now Open! www.SoftwareSuccess, the Softletter blog, is now open. Visit here. In This Issue's Softletter
|
Computerworld Excerpt from In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition, Chapter 12, The Strange Case of Dr. Open and Mr. Proprietary, by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman (This excerpt ran in Computerworld; As noted in Chapter 2 of this book, the release of the Altair microcomputer in 1975 heralded the beginning of the modern high-tech industry. But observers of the period also believe there was more to the Altair than just chips; the unit seemed to emit a mysterious elixir that entered the body of computer aficionados worldwide and sparked a strange war of the soul that has raged in the body of the computer geekdom for more than three decades. The war is between those who advocate for free software and open, patentless technology available to all and those who believe in making substantial sums of money from selling proprietary software and the vigorous protection of intellectual property. It’s the Kumbayahs vs. the Capitalists. Other influences may be responsible for the ongoing struggle. Perhaps Star Trek bears some of the blame. Few in microcomputing hadn’t watched the series, and as Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, Scottie, and their innumerable successors went gallivanting through the galaxy, they seemed to have no visible means of financial support. No one in the Star Trek universe wearing green eye shades ever appeared to worry about the propensity of the various casts to blow up what you’d think were undoubtedly very expensive spaceships, given their capabilities of violating the laws of physics, transporting the crew to numerous planets inhabited by women who spent most of their time wearing lingerie, and dodging ray-gun fire from angry races of aliens who kept screaming “kaplok!” (and who also seemed to have no monetary worries). Perhaps the reason for Captain Kirk’s insouciance lay in the fact that everyone in Star Trek had access to what were called “transporters,” magical devices that could be used to whisk you from the spaceship Enterprise to a planet without having to pay a toll. Later in the series’ development, transporters could be used to create chocolate milk shakes, drinks, and even the occasional boyfriend or girlfriend via simple voice commands. And all for free! Of course, no computer has a Star Trek–like transporter system built into it, but from the standpoint of people interested in obtaining software without forking over monetary compensation, software has something almost as good. That good thing is the “copy” command. And since software, unlike milk shakes, drinks, and boyfriends, is already digitized, just about anyone can execute this wondrous command and enjoy a cornucopia of software in an environment free of the distasteful economic friction of “paying.” Technology's interest in the concept of free software was demonstrated almost conterminously with the release of the Altair in the events surrounding the “liberation” of the first BASIC for this pioneering machine. When first available, the Altair had no useful software, and the market was eagerly awaiting the release of Altair BASIC (waiting was something Altairians were very good at doing because Altair maker MITS was legendary for announcing new products it couldn’t deliver, a habit the rest of the industry soon learned to emulate). The product had been developed by a small software firm, Micro-Soft, run by two people no one had ever heard of, Paul Allen and Bill Gates.... Read the rest of the Computerworld excerpt here Online Resources On April 18th, Rick Chapman conducted an online seminar on the impact of SaaS on product management. The complete session, with slides and narration, is available here. Manage Your SoftGram Subscription
Your username is: [[eMail]]
|
Upcoming Events Software Business's Slam 2007 SLAM 2007 is a working conference that delivers interactive content that CEOs, Vice Presidents, Product Managers, Sales Staff and Marketing Teams use to take advantage of the biggest market opportunities. Valuable case studies, processes and solutions from today's hottest software companies. Product Stragegy Network Register to attend an upcoming Product Roadmapping Training Workshop - the only training program that provides you with a complete, integrated methodology for building strategic and actionable product roadmaps.
|