Gamasutra’s feature article today is called Game Law: To Sue or Not to Sue…That is the Question. This is a fine article that is unfortunately almost as relevant for traditional application developers. In my experience, legal confrontations seem to occur far more in games/entertainment rather than in the shrinkwrap apps market.
I seem to be doing a lot of writing for everyone except Software Destinations! Here is a return to the deadly sins series I started a few months ago, in response to an incredible conference I went to at the Software Association of Oregon in April. To quickly recap, these are deadly sins that CEOs of software companies commit that ultimately destroy their company. This next sin is “Good Planning, Bad Execution”. (more…)
Apple Computer introduced today a new professional photo product called Aperture. Priced at $499, its $100 less than Photoshop CS2. The price point is facinating, both of Aperture and of Photoshop. And Im certain that, while most reviews will certainly indicate that Aperture doesn’t have the feature set of Photoshop, it will certainly make full use of the graphics toolbox underlying the MacOS X operating system. (more…)
Greg Costikyan’s two part Death to the Game Industry: Long Live Games provides an interesting look at the shrinkwrapped game business, and how much more awful it is than the state of application software distribution in North America. Application and game distribution is a rickety thing, full of faults. Greg points most of the serious ones, but regretably the only solution he offers is wishing for a better world in which the creator is exalted. (more…)
eWeek’s Channel Insider takes a look at the state of Mac value-added resellers. This rehashed a lot of the anxiety and “Tell on Apple” gripes that Apple Specialists have had for the last several years. But the emphasis on services, especially for PCs is interesting for software vendors.
I get mixed signals from my channel contacts when it comes to margins on Macs: a very wide variance between what’s been told to me by a big boy reseller vs what the small time Apple Specialists get. Across the board though, they say that customers can take a retail quote from a retailer and have it matched by the Apple Store. There’s no real option for competing on price. Channel Insider’s article also reiterates that Mac only shops have to depend on services to survive (some small timers would say this is based on the tiny margins they get on a CPU).
So what’s the story on software? I think you’ll find almost all the little stores buy from the same distributor, and there’s little there for variation on pricing (this same distributor serves the Apple Store as well). There’s no mistaking the service angle. Resellers I know have said Apple’s been telling them to do that for years. It is a smart way to add value. But with software, Ive never see a reseller carry the same or more titles as an Apple Store or CompUSA for that matter, even though carrying differentiating software titles could be another way that differentiates them from the Apple Store. In other words, don’t take Mac VARs hunger as a signal they will buy your software product — even though they should. They seem content, for the most part, to sell whatever is on the shared distribution menu.
I just read Michael Panda’s rant article How Apple iTunes 5.0 Almost Ruined My Life and can totally relate where he is coming from, having put in six years in Japan myself. This seems like a classic business infrastructure vs technology problem that is at the heart of issues surrounding international distribution. At the heart of this is that good development can solve problems but they cannot resolve territorial issues. (more…)
Letting your focus drift can up-end your business at any time: before you release your first product or after you have had a success or two.
As a software vendor, your first priority is to ship product. If you are an Engineer CEO or a technology researcher, it is very easy to consciously or unconsciously place technological perfection above all else or get caught up in the total functionality of the technology you work with. (more…)
A start up CEO usually has to fill an incredible array of roles before the operation becomes viable. This is especially true of Engineer CEOs who end up spending 90% of their time coding and the other 10% actually running the business. A serious problem which I have seen in many start ups that Proactive International has worked with, is that start up CEOs either forget what a CEO is actually supposed to do, or, never knew what they were supposed to do from the beginning. (more…)
A lot of start ups formed from refugees from other companies often fall into the trap of thinking that sales is someone else’s job. In large companies, you’ll find employees who think this part of the company codes; that part of the company sells. It is a sickness that can cripple the big boys and kill start ups. (more…)
Here is the second deadly sin of a software company CEO - running out of money. In fact, there is another deadly sin related to financing, but lets cut to the quick of it and talk about a software company’s money supply for meeting goals. As simple as this sin may sound (and you think, avoid), it happens because of very common misconceptions. (more…)