> Keeping the discussion academic, "hype a product..." is a > business model that apparently has been used to at least some > degree by a company called Microsoft. It tends to work > because the model permits them such an early lead that even > better products have difficulty catching up. > > I do most of my programming in Delphi, a Borland product > which remains in my opinion, even in its shadow of former > glory state, a far more straightforward and powerful product > than Visual Studio. Borland has always been a technical > company, not a market driven one and its flagship product is > surviving only because it remains a more well rounded Windows > solution than its competition. However, it is only surviving > and is unlikely to actually thrive ever again.
There's room for everyone - just how much room, that's the question (then mergers and acquisitions). Penetration isnt always the same based on territory. Delphi enjoyed a disproportionate amount of influence in Europe, for example. Lack of good 2-byte support plus other market factors also made Asian market penetration a bit different. Big, well financed companies with a strong lead in North America can play catch up later if its in their interest. And we are talking Windows only development here anyway. MS doesn't have much of a lock on the Linux, Mac OS or Unix markets. While I wouldn't want to depend 100% on any one of these other markets, being there can make a significant difference. Best regards, Lynn Fredricks President Paradigma Software http://www.paradigmasoft.com Valentina SQL Server: The Ultra-fast, Royalty Free Database Server ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
