From: bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: os/2 applications
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:41:09 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Applied Information Systems, Chapel Hill, NC

In article <1992Aug8.2712.3392@dosgate>, "bill dehaan" <bill.dehaan@canrem.com> writes:
> In message <dlcogswe.712806067@vela>, Dan Cogswell writes:
> 
> DC>You're obviously not developing software, then.  How many companies are
> DC>producing Windows software?  Do you think you can compete with big names
> DC>like Borland, Lotus, Microsoft, etc.?  50% of a 1 million machine market
> DC>is a heckuva lot better than 1% of a 10 million machine market.  And
> DC>even a lowsy OS/2 program can be better than a good Windows
> DC>program, so you don't even have to try very hard for the market share.
> 
> In other words, you don't have  to try as hard, because OS/2  users will
> take whatever  you give  them? The  adamant types,  sure. But  companies
> aren't going to accept less functionality just because it runs on  OS/2.
> They will expect more functionality to justify the change, not less.

I don't think this is the main point.

The biggest expense of bringing out a software product for most market
segments is usually NOT writing the program -- it's the marketing,
support and (sometimes) production (depending on the price and number
of unit sales).  Usually (but not always), a smaller potential market
costs less to sell to - advertizing in specialty publications is less
expensive (ever checked out the price of an ad in most computer
publications?), fewer customers mean fewer support calls, etc.

In a few cases you may find that someone has to run a particular machine
or OS because of a particular application, and then any other apps that
they buy have to be compatible with their setup;  and in some cases
they're willing to buy one of these "second-tier" apps (in the sense
that it's not their mission-critical app that is why they have the
system in the first place, not in the sense that it isn't very good)
that isn't quite as good as what might be available in a mass-market
environment.

But most customers in most environments are definitely NOT happy with
inferior apps ... it's just that in specialty markets, it's less 
expensive to find the customers.  But having said that, I'm not entirely
sure that OS/2 qualifies very well for this category:  there are few
specialty publications devoted to it;  if you want to advertize a
new app so that it will hit a high percentage of your market you
pretty much have to do so in the mainstream publications, and this
is expensive.  This isn't to say that there are no ways to get your
name out to the market, or that all of them are prohibitive, but
it's harder than it is for, eg, Unix.

On the other hand, for a small company it really is prohibitive to
try to develop for Windows unless you have a really unique product
or unless your product addresses a smaller, more easily targeted
subset of the Windows market -- a vertical market, for example.  OS/2
is somewhat less prohibitive in this regard, but it's still likely
to be difficult to hit your market with the resources typically
available to a small software company.  The situation may improve
with time - with the Cobb group putting out one of their newsletters
on OS/2, this may signal that there will be more ways to get your
name out to the public without going through PC or PC World or Byte
until you've built up enough volume to support it.

Bruce C. Wright
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy