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A micro bubble bursting in the productivity arena?
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Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 18, 2015 at 05:48 PM
Interesting week.
IQTell calls it quits. http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5983/0/iqtell-shutting-down
Wuala calls it quits . http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5981/0/wuala-shutting-down
Workflowy gives the premium product away. http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5982/0/workflowy-pro-for-1-year-free
More?
These aren’t consolidations. The first two are exits. The last is maybe the classic last gasp?
Like many, I’ve wondered at just how much “productivity” the market can bear. It’s a relatively easy space to enter (lots of APIs); difficult to differentiate; and thus difficult to sustain when the growth curve of new accounts flattens and dives. And, maybe the market is tiring of fees-for-everything?
Posted by Donovan
Aug 18, 2015 at 07:10 PM
Paul Korm wrote:
Interesting week.
>
>IQTell calls it quits.
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5983/0/iqtell-shutting-down
>
>Wuala calls it quits .
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5981/0/wuala-shutting-down
>
>Workflowy gives the premium product away.
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/5982/0/workflowy-pro-for-1-year-free
>
>More?
>
>These aren’t consolidations. The first two are exits. The last is
>maybe the classic last gasp?
>
>Like many, I’ve wondered at just how much “productivity” the market can
>bear. It’s a relatively easy space to enter (lots of APIs); difficult
>to differentiate; and thus difficult to sustain when the growth curve of
>new accounts flattens and dives. And, maybe the market is tiring of
>fees-for-everything?
I’ve wondered much the same thing. Microsoft’s decision to practically giveaway Office 365 (the free years and trials are ending shortly) has apparently been a huge success. As for our CRIMPing desires, many of us are still looking and comparing while a great many more have grabbed OneNote and run with it. They had a hidden gem that they never promoted, began to *give* away and the bundle giveaways showed many that OneNote is one of Microsoft’s truly great products. It’s taken a hit on Evernote and I can imagine it has hurt others.
The Wuala thing appears to be a business decision by Lacie to step away from the storage space and concentrate on their core business.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 18, 2015 at 07:34 PM
I think Workflowy and Gingko both blew it when they failed to produce desktop apps.
There are some things that only work well as web apps. Stuff like Asana and other collaborative tools (and even many of those, such as Slack, have excellent desktop clients).
But Workflowy and Gingko are crying out for desktop versions. It’s really annoying to have to go online to access them, especially for those of us who’ve uninstalled Chrome and all Chrome apps.
Gingko in particular I regard as one of the moments of genius in the self-organisation world. But many of you also use Workflowy, too. And they’ve been promising a desktop app since 2011.
Sadly, I don’t think either of them will be around in 2017. And that’s a crying shame.
Posted by Ken
Aug 18, 2015 at 07:42 PM
Are there other signs that Workflowy is having issues? I thought this give-away was just a promotional to drum up more customers, but perhaps it may be a last ditch effort?
—Ken
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 18, 2015 at 08:17 PM
There has also been consolidation. Fetchnotes was bought out. Wunderlist was bought out. Hackpad was bought out. Don’t know if that means anything.
Steve Z.