Wednesday, October 24, 2007

SW Corp gets away with releasing half-bake-ware

The reason why SW Corp gets away with releasing half-bake-ware:

Majority rules, 80-90% of the users come from using inexpensive, inferior and poorly managed design tools.
Most of the user base do not fully use the tool or use very little of the functionality, thus, the more involved functionality is typically overlooked, poorly critiqued or supported.
Majority of the users expectations on quality are very low or the need for reliable software is average.
Many of the users come from using past tools with limited functionality, they become use to or complacent with working around limitations.
Workarounds, due to limitations, have a "at a boy" or a accomplishment related mentality,.. this is, it becomes an accepted part of the job when using the software.

Majority of the users do NOT pay for the software,.. they are not committed to the software investment or it's future.
Majority of the users DO NOT report problems, why would they, it's not their problem, they get paid regardless.

SW Corp has a niche market,.. it still falls between two major software companies... PTC (Pro/E, high end) and AutoDesk (Inventor, low end)
Many Pro/E users do NOT fully use Pro/E so SW becomes the easier to use Pro/e for those converts, and again, demands are lowered.
Most Inventor/Acad users don't know how to use the higher functionality and most likely will never understand or use the majority of the functionality.

SW Corp business plan is to do as little and as much as possible to maintain their niche market.
That is, stay squarely in the middle, keep ahead of Inventor and behind Pro/e and of course, not more than Catia (the mother company).

So, for the users who are pushing most of the functionality in SW, we (I estimate about 10%) are NOT a priority and NEVER will be.
And.., for the paying users and/or consultants wanting to push SW and be more productive,.. we are between a rock and a hard place.

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