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A micro bubble bursting in the productivity arena?
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Posted by Franz Grieser
Aug 20, 2015 at 08:11 AM
steveylang wrote:
>Although I guess the other possibility is that they’re trying to
>generate a fast boost in user base, to try to secure more funding.
That is my guess, too.
One of my customers is a German startup that is funded by some institutions and private investors. And the “currency” there is user base.
Moreover, it’s not unlikely that a considerable amount of Workflowy users who got the Pro edition for free now will continue to use it on a subscription base next year.
Posted by Andy Brice
Aug 20, 2015 at 09:53 AM
>It’s easy to understand why developers favor subscription revenue models, and why they favor online apps. But I don’t like online apps.
There are plusses and minuses to desktop/pay once and SaaS/subscription. If you are interested wrote about it from a developer point of view here:
http://successfulsoftware.net/2013/10/28/is-desktop-software-dead/
Posted by Andy Brice
Aug 20, 2015 at 10:00 AM
zoe wrote:
It must be very tough out there for smaller companies to market their
>products/systems to the diverse landscape of large & small companies,
>individual freelancers, and academic/nonprofit users.
It’s certainly a challenge to be noticed in such a crowded space.
>I’ve repeatedly read that the ultimate cost-benefit analysis is revenue
>vs. support for each class of user. Users who pay less (or nothing) tend
>to become money LOSERS for a company, even if they are evangelical. An
>article I read about the death of free-tier software said that free
>users do recruit more users; the only problem is that they recruit more
>FREE users. And they all need lots of hand-holding, which costs the
>company lots of time, money and manpower.
Only large companies have any chance to make a ‘freemium’ model work. Even then, most of them seem to be running at a loss (including Evernote, last I heard).
It is simply not economical for a small company like mine to support thousands of free users. The support burden would kill me. Especially as free users often seem to be the least skilled at using a computer.
—
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com
Posted by Bernhard
Aug 21, 2015 at 06:09 AM
I have to admit that cloud apps came out with exiting new pieces of software.
Nevertheless, I absolutely don’t trust in cloud services. Besides that company rules interdict to store information outside I don’t want my private data to hang around.
Another reason is that I don’t have a n online connection all the day. So, I can’t access data in a browser when I need to.