BlackBox 1.4 in computer stores?

From: [at]} <Wojtek>
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 12:12:40 -0500 (EST)

 Fyodor Tkachov from Russian Academy of Sciences wrote:

> Component Pascal is still by far the best tool for my applications
> (heavy mathematics in nature, symbol manipulation in type,
> supercomputer in scale).

Right now I am using C++ for heavy-duty scientific computing.
Ough.. all these memory leaks, segmentation violations,
you can imagine that. I know Component Pascal would be ideal.
But nobody in the scientific community around has ever heard
of CP. I guess I know why: there is a small company somewhere
in Switzerland that distributes the thing off their website.
That's about all I can say to prospective users. This simply
does not sound serious enough.

With the BB release 1.4 imminent, I am asking the management
of Oberon Microsystems the following question: have you guys
given your consideration to more traditional distribution channels?
Will it ever happen that I can walk into a computer store
and simply grab the BlacBox Component Builder off the shelf,
like I can grab so many other software packages? I would much
prefer to buy BB that way, because if I can do that, so can
millions of others. This will perhaps generate the user base
that BB so desperately needs. Not to mention the revenue
stream, that OuS also needs (I guess it does, but maybe I am wrong).

I am currently attending a business development course and I am
learning about distribution channels, marketing, product sales,
and so on. I have learned that a mediocre product plus
good management equals success, while a magnificent product
plus mediocre management equals failure. I have also learned
that product sales, marketing, and distribution, are all the
fundamental concerns that good management should take care of.
Product development, on the other hand, is important and even vital,
but it is not the whole enchilada.

I am throwing these questions at you guys in public, because
my private e-mails over the years have been largely ignored
in the sense that OuS business model has hardly changed, as we
all know. OuS is terrific about product development, but once
the product has been developed, its sales and distribution
seem nonexistent. This is hardly a business model that can lead
to a company success, and thus to further product advancement.
At the end it hurts us all: it hurts OuS who cannot grow,
and it hurts us because the promised "component software"
cannot materialize (where there are no users, there are also
no components).

I apologize to all the readers who believe this mailing list
should only be used for technical discussions.

Wojtek Skulski
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0171
Phone (716) 275 4941 Fax: (716) 275 8527
E-mail skulski{([at]})nowhere.xy

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Received on Sun Nov 26 2000 - 17:12:40 UTC

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