08 Aug 2002
Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Disenchanted: Software Ecology
I think Chris Wenham and Joel Spolsky are idolizing the same economist. Who that economist is, I'm not quite sure, but what I am sure of is that when Wenham describes his software ecology, what you're seeing is the commoditization of the compliments. The problem I'm discovering is that while it's easy to generalize this discussion in abstract terms, it's quite difficult to apply in specific scenarios because 1) discovering compliments is elusive in some cases and 2) even if you can discover the compliments, you often don't have enough control to catalyze the commoditization.
Posted at: 08:09 | permalink
Real Networks Lays Off Ten Percent
Real Networks announced today that it will lay off ten percent of it's staff and take a restructuring charge. It also seems to think it is losing ground in the player war. Message to Real Networks: I've said it before but you're still not listening. Grease the path to the Free Real One Download. Make it one click from the home page. No download managers. No advertising. No user registration. Then watch the player flourish.
Unfortunately, given the elaborate download barbed wire that Real puts in front of the free player, the existing users of the free Real One player can only be described by Wenham's First Law Of Demand:
"No matter how dumb your product's concept is, or how badly it's been implemented, there will always be someone who's lifestyle is so perverse and twisted that your service will become indispensable to them."
Posted at: 07:51 | permalink
