At 12:06 PM -0400 8/26/07, Lawrence David Eden wrote:
Now I am seeing Sibelius stick it to Finale. I have not used Sibelius, nor do I intend to, but I am concerned to see MakeMusic take a back seat to any other notation software. On this list, I hear mostly complaints about Finale. Why is MakeMusic willing to take this kind of beating? For my purposes, (small ensembles), Finale is just fine and I have no complaints. It used to be that I could endorse Finale without reservation. Now, I am not so sure. Is Sibelius as good as it appears to be?
I've never taken a marketing course, but some things seem clear. Given equally good products, aggressive marketing will take over market share. Just look at the automobile companies, or the soft drink companies! Yes, we really are dumb enough and predictable enough to develop "brand loyalty," just as males really are responsive to good makeup worn by females, and have been since Cleopatra and Marc Antony!!
Given a good product with low key marketing, and a poor product with aggressive marketing, it seems to get a lot more complicated. The aggressive marketing is going to gain market share at first, but the customers it gains will become disillusioned by the poor product and will not only switch, but will never come back to a company that has burned them. I think.
The concern expressed on this list has been that Finale is well on its way to becoming a poor product, riddled with unfixed bugs and with an unrealistic marketing plan, and that truly does seem to be the case. At the moment Sibelius is not only marketing more aggressively, but they are clearly ahead in the matters of development time between releases, customer service and attention to customer wishes, and functionality right out of the box without needing a degree in computer programming. That may, of course, change in the future, if Finale lasts long enough to recognize and fix their problems, and if Sibelius gets overconfident. But neither is happening right now.
John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
