How do you kill a web based service? Sign an exclusivity deal which locks most users out of your service, that's how.
MySpace signing an exclusivity deal with Optus and blocking Australian who are with other carriers from accessing the mobile service pretty well kills that app dead here.
Mind you, given the average age of an Australian MySpace user is rapidly approaching 12 and that many pre-paid mobile plans don't include data, I doubt MySpace Mobile is generate much interest.
I can understand they have to make as much as they can before the revenue stream completely dries up.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Locked software
Mark Fletcher's Australian Newsagents Blog has two stories of newsagents locked out of point of sale software.
From the posts, I assume this is due to licensing disputes between the store and the software vendor. This is absolutely disgraceful behaviour by the vendor as it cripples the business.
Sadly, this sort of thing is not unusual with proprietary database programs. The data is firmly locked away and difficult to get at unless the victim stumps up a large and improbably amount of money.
I would recommend to anyone considering buying such a program to have a close look at the backup and data export features in the program. All programs should have a local backup function and the ability to export the databases into a generic format like a Comma Separated Values text file.
That way, should you find a dispute looming then you can at least export your business data into a format that other programs can read.
For my money, locking customers out of their own data is shameful behaviour. Sadly this lack of respect for the consumer all too common in the IT industry and is another reason why we are getting a reputation somewhere between real estate agents and used car dealers.
From the posts, I assume this is due to licensing disputes between the store and the software vendor. This is absolutely disgraceful behaviour by the vendor as it cripples the business.
Sadly, this sort of thing is not unusual with proprietary database programs. The data is firmly locked away and difficult to get at unless the victim stumps up a large and improbably amount of money.
I would recommend to anyone considering buying such a program to have a close look at the backup and data export features in the program. All programs should have a local backup function and the ability to export the databases into a generic format like a Comma Separated Values text file.
That way, should you find a dispute looming then you can at least export your business data into a format that other programs can read.
For my money, locking customers out of their own data is shameful behaviour. Sadly this lack of respect for the consumer all too common in the IT industry and is another reason why we are getting a reputation somewhere between real estate agents and used car dealers.
Too many Vista versions
When I first heard of there would be five different versions of Vista I thought it would be a support nightmare. Well I was right on that but now I'm finding it messes me up in other ways.
I'm midway through adapting Dan Gookin's latest "PCs for Dummies" for the Australian market. One of the things that's really, really irritating me is the version differences.
Take for instance the chapter on video making, Dan spends two pages on Windows Movie Maker. The final line reads "this isn't available in all versions of Windows Vista".
This proviso is having to go at least once into every chapter. It's a joke.
I've blogged on this being way too confusing for customers before. To make it harder, most of the entry level PCs, the CHUMPS as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes calls them, come with Vista Home Basic. This means they don't get much of the features Microsoft tout and that we spend much of the book discussing.
There was plenty of confusion between XP Home and Professional. Users were caught out because they bought the wrong type, usually office users buying Home and finding they couldn't connect to the office domain. With Vista it's far, far worse.
Apple are exactly right on this, this is needlessly confusing the market. It also screws up the channel as it increases inventory costs and returns.
To say Vista is not Microsoft's finest hour is an understatement.
I'm midway through adapting Dan Gookin's latest "PCs for Dummies" for the Australian market. One of the things that's really, really irritating me is the version differences.
Take for instance the chapter on video making, Dan spends two pages on Windows Movie Maker. The final line reads "this isn't available in all versions of Windows Vista".
This proviso is having to go at least once into every chapter. It's a joke.
I've blogged on this being way too confusing for customers before. To make it harder, most of the entry level PCs, the CHUMPS as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes calls them, come with Vista Home Basic. This means they don't get much of the features Microsoft tout and that we spend much of the book discussing.
There was plenty of confusion between XP Home and Professional. Users were caught out because they bought the wrong type, usually office users buying Home and finding they couldn't connect to the office domain. With Vista it's far, far worse.
Apple are exactly right on this, this is needlessly confusing the market. It also screws up the channel as it increases inventory costs and returns.
To say Vista is not Microsoft's finest hour is an understatement.
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