> I understand the frustration some of you feel because you'd
> rather transact with us directly. Please look at the bigger
> picture and realize that the more people there are in the
> world marketing, selling and supporting REALbasic in their
> local countries, the more popular REALbasic will be. This
> means there are more users contributing to the REALbasic
> community and it means that we can hire more people to add
> value to REALbasic and thus bring you and even better version
> of REALbasic in the future.
Geoff hit this right on. Development of multiple channels for a software
product is necessary if you are going to expand. Don't you recall the
author of Nanosaur saying how if he doesn't get his products sold in
CompUSA he will go out of business? He had a hot venue by getting
product bundled by Apple, but unfortunately, he squandered his
opportunity and resources and didn't develop a means to reach larger and
diverse new populations of users. The internet direct sales mantra was
as infectious as the "open source" mantra, but a lot of companies who
bet the farm on direct internet sales are dead or are in the process of
expiring (selling out, merging, retiring, whatever).
Id like to thank John Dixon, a well known and long respected UK
journalist for commenting, by the way ;-)
And yes, Thomas, that's one method Ive used before. It wouldn't work
well in this situation however.
There are business reasons for channel development that are critical for
the success *and survival* of REAL or *any* software company. You cannot
serve customers long if you are going out of business for the lack of
resources to continue.
If you are going to grow your own software business (assuming some of
you have this in mind), I recommend that you do some research, perhaps
get a job with an established software house and plumb out what it means
to be in the business as a vendor.
Best regards,
Lynn Fredricks
President
Proactive International, LLC
http://www.proactive-intl.com
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