On 7/29/2014 3:20 PM, David F. Skoll wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:36:51 -0700
Ted Mittelstaedt<t...@ipinc.net> wrote:
There are those who would define disgustingly rich as a requirement
for happiness...
Yes, and most of them are unhappy. But I fear we drift OT again...
That's the plan that these companies like Microsoft and Google have
designed. It's all about vendor lock-in.
Yes, it is. That's been the history of computing since IBM. Nothing
lasts forever; IBM is nowhere near the dominant player it used to be.
Eventually something will supplany MSFT and yes, even Google will fade
eventually.
People used to say that about General Motors & Ford Motor Company 100
years ago.
The key is to find something you enjoy, find a niche in which you can
enjoy it profitably, and go for it. There's no use bemoaning the
situation when your niche disappears. You just have to find a new
one.
Email providing IT NOT A NICHE MARKET. That is crazy and false. It is
a commodity market.
Google and Microsoft understand this and they aren't out there selling
their "cloud" email solutions to people looking for "special" email.
They are selling their solutions to people looking for commodity email.
Companies that supply commodity products DON'T follow this "something
will supplant" them notion of yours. Westinghouse is still around.
Consolidated Edison is still around. Ford Motor Company is still
around. They were never "supplanted"
Your "rise and fall" theory only applies to High Tech companies that
prefer to think of themselves as "innovators" and turn up their nose at
"commodity" products. Like Apple. Microsoft. Sun. And dozens of
others, most of them gone now.
Google is almost unique in high tech because while they embrace
innovation they DON'T turn up their nose at commodity products, and they
actively seek to sell them.
And Microsoft in my opinion got in Cloud email right now because Google
is doing it - and they thought that since Google is there, they better
be there too. They didn't quite understand WHY they needed to be there,
but they were paranoid about all this talk about Android taking over
Windows. I think that they are learning, though.
One of the fundamental things you learn with the commodity market is
people don't like to admit to themselves that they are buying commodity
products.
This is why your "we only want to sell to the smart people" plays so
well. It's absolutely spot on that same line of sales baloney, and
since your small you can make it believable, as an added bonus.
The big guys, Microsoft and Google spend oodles of money assuring every
one of their customers they sell Google Apps to, or Office 365 to, that
they are "special" that their Google Apps or Office 365 is "unique" and
"special" They say the same thing you do. Exactly the same, just
worded a bit differently. (a little less snooty)
That is one of the other reasons that this perception that Gmails
spam filtering is superior. Because the public swallows the advertising
that their product IS unique and special, and NOT commodity, because
when weak people are yelled at with the same thing every day, they start
to believe it must be true. Google and Microsoft have enough money they
can scream at the sheep that "our stuff is better" every day so the
sheep start believing them. McDonalds does exactly the same thing with
their excuse for hamburgers.
Even though, the real truth is that Gmail and Office 365 is the very
definition and essence of commodity email. The people buying them are
the same as everyone else. They just THINK they are different.
Email today IS COMMODITY. We are all selling the same product. This
baloney about there being a special niche in email is just baloney.
It's all the same stuff. What you sell is the same as what Google sells
which is the same as what I sell. It is like selling milk. We are all
dairies with cows squirting out the same stuff.
So please stop with the niche market talk. It is simply not true.
The problem we have right now is that the two biggest dairies -
Microsoft Office 365, and Google Apps - are being selected by the people
because the people have drunk their advertising. The rest of us cannot
afford to go up against their advertising. So what is our
story, and why is it better and how can we use it against their
pack of advertising lies?
I'm not willing to roll over and just give up. Some responders to this
thread aren't either and I have loved their responses. I'll summarize
them to this thread.
Ted
Regards,
David.
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