[Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients

[Lorne]

I love these historical and business commentaries Dimitri!  I have said this
before, but it is endlessly fascinating to see business from the inside out.

I have a copy of Computer Shopper's, PC Clones, Volume Number 1, Issue
number 1, circa 1987.  It has been sitting on my bookshelf for nearly two
decades!  How could a PC magazine so old be valuable?  It contained a number
of classic articles, one of which was entitled "The Djinn is Out of the
Bottle" (IBM may have established a standard, but now the genie is out on
the loose) by Stan Veit.  This and other articles in the issue, explain how
IBM eventually ended up with the most non-IBM compatible computer on the
planet (back in those days).  It is still great reading.  The following
excerpt is interesting and your note fills in some of the missing
background.

"American chip manufacturers protested that the Japanese were dumping chips
in this country. As a result, agreements with the Japanese were made to
curtail this practice. The prices of memory and other American chips have
just about doubled since then. Are the chip makers happy at this? Well, they
got what they wanted right now.  In the long run however, they will be very
unhappy because the few remaining American computer manufacturers cannot
compete with equipment made offshore so they are closing down their American
factories and turning them into warehouses.  They are having their products
made in the Far East where, not only is labor cheaper, but so is silicon.
The moral to this story is simple.  When you put your finger in the dike,
the Djinn opens another larger hole just out of your reach!" 

>>If we could keep a sub-$100 price for all other users (those entering from
Microsoft Office, 
>>for example) and maintain a higher price just for folks coming out of the
classical GIS market
>>  we'd do so."

As a hobby Manifold user and one of those Office types, I would vote for
this :-)  On the other hand, I can easily accept $245 for the product.  I am
certainly not going to drop $2000 Canadian for a copy of Mapinfo plus
another $1300 for Mapbasic, plus taxes and shipping.  Those prices are
bargain basement compared to ArcInfo.  Larger institutions do have to look
at training costs and data migration.  These sorts of considerations are not
going to influence individuals' thinking much.  Nothing beats low price,
period.  Quality plus low price is simply going to win every time.  The only
users that can argue otherwise are the ones not footing the bill themselves
- they can transfer the cost to a third party be that a client or the tax
payer.

I expect that every Manifold user has a primary reason or two for selecting
the product.  I bet low cost is common across the board.  As well, each
person is going to have their own priorities and interests in how the
product develops, how Manifold markets it, etc.  However, there is one tie
point connecting everyone - we must have a strong and viable Manifold
company.  Does it really matter if I can fit Manifold into my retirement
income now if the product is not available in five years?

Your many Manifold-L and GeoReference postings on this and similar themes
always make one point - the company Always has its eye on the end objective
and nothing will deter it.  Manifold will be the best, cheapest and most
widely used professional GIS available.  It is simply not possible to fault
that type of thinking.

Eagerly looking forward to the next installment :)

Lorne