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A micro bubble bursting in the productivity arena?
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Posted by Dr Andus
Aug 18, 2015 at 09:16 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
I think Workflowy and Gingko both blew it when they failed to produce
>desktop apps.
I’m not so sure about that. An alternative interpretation is that they are ahead of the curve as the world moves toward cloud services and ‘dumb’ terminals like Chromebooks.
Both seem to be small businesses (at least in terms of number of staff), so their resources are limited as to where they put their attention. As sales of classical desktops and laptops are declining, there would be increasingly fewer reasons to invest into desktop apps (not to mention that the first thing people tend to launch on their desktops is a browser, and WorkFlowy works just great in let’s say Firefox, where it can be even enhanced by all kinds of Firefox add-ons, which couldn’t be done in a standalone app).
So maybe they’re just better of focusing on recruiting more online customers (and keeping the existing ones happy).
Ken wrote:
Are there other signs that Workflowy is having issues? I thought this
>give-away was just a promotional to drum up more customers, but perhaps
>it may be a last ditch effort?
I certainly hope not. It does makes sense as a marketing tactic. It takes time to get attached to WorkFlowy, and prolonged use of it is more likely to lock in new customers.
Having said that, I always thought that their free version was far too generous already. I’ve decided to become a paying customer a while ago because I can’t imagine my life without it and I desperately want them to survive.
Posted by steveylang
Aug 18, 2015 at 09:38 PM
I feel like a 1-year Premium giveaway is more of a promotional effort than last ditch attempt to save the company, as they’re basically sacrificing a lot of revenue.
Had they done a ‘90% OFF’ sale, that might smack of desperation more, hoping that greater unit sales would make up for the reduced price. Although I guess the other possibility is that they’re trying to generate a fast boost in user base, to try to secure more funding.
So either they’re doing great, or they’re throwing a Hail Mary pass to prevent going belly up. Ha!
IIRC they’re running a pretty tight ship, so I am guessing they are doing okay-
Ken wrote:
Are there other signs that Workflowy is having issues? I thought this
>give-away was just a promotional to drum up more customers, but perhaps
>it may be a last ditch effort?
>
>—Ken
Posted by yosemite
Aug 19, 2015 at 12:25 AM
Is workflowy in trouble? I was under the impression their revenue was pretty good, however the pace of development has slowed (again). But they’ve had bouts of slow and fast development alternating for their entire five years. In 2014 they added a number of nifty things, such as an android app, bold & italic, and multiple select. On the other hand, for a long time (years?), their help/support has said the following features are coming: Dates & reminders, Image attachments, Advanced tagging options, Collaboration improvements, API. No sign of any of that.
I’ve been paying for workflowy but I’ll probably stop paying soon and just go back to the free mode. I would pay in a heartbeat for a windows desktop app though, it’s one of my favorites.
It’s easy to understand why developers favor subscription revenue models, and why they favor online apps. But I don’t like online apps. They’re generally just too slow and don’t scale well and don’t have power-user features. I consider workflowy an exception to the rule.
Off-topic, but I’m also disenchanted with ipads and android tablets and now that small windows laptops are getting HD screens and powerful processors I think I’m going back to windows (7), desktop apps, and dropbox-etc sync.
Posted by zoe
Aug 19, 2015 at 08:59 PM
It must be very tough out there for smaller companies to market their products/systems to the diverse landscape of large & small companies, individual freelancers, and academic/nonprofit users.
I’ve repeatedly read that the ultimate cost-benefit analysis is revenue vs. support for each class of user. Users who pay less (or nothing) tend to become money LOSERS for a company, even if they are evangelical. An article I read about the death of free-tier software said that free users do recruit more users; the only problem is that they recruit more FREE users. And they all need lots of hand-holding, which costs the company lots of time, money and manpower.
Conversely, larger enterprise customers are more likely to stay on the conservative side and stick to Outlook, Sharepoint, and other tested enterprise-level software, for all its faults. Even Evernote can’t really sell itself as a secure or reliable enough platform to be dependable for a sizeable corporation to depend on.
And as for us users, I find myself routinely circling back around to open-source software, plaintext files, and highly-portable non-database systems. I’m tired of fleeing sinking ship after sinking ship…
Posted by Ken
Aug 19, 2015 at 09:55 PM
zoe wrote:
It must be very tough out there for smaller companies to market their
>products/systems to the diverse landscape of large & small companies,
>individual freelancers, and academic/nonprofit users.
>
>I’ve repeatedly read that the ultimate cost-benefit analysis is revenue
>vs. support for each class of user. Users who pay less (or nothing) tend
>to become money LOSERS for a company, even if they are evangelical. An
>article I read about the death of free-tier software said that free
>users do recruit more users; the only problem is that they recruit more
>FREE users. And they all need lots of hand-holding, which costs the
>company lots of time, money and manpower.
>
>Conversely, larger enterprise customers are more likely to stay on the
>conservative side and stick to Outlook, Sharepoint, and other tested
>enterprise-level software, for all its faults. Even Evernote can’t
>really sell itself as a secure or reliable enough platform to be
>dependable for a sizeable corporation to depend on.
>
>And as for us users, I find myself routinely circling back around to
>open-source software, plaintext files, and highly-portable non-database
>systems. I’m tired of fleeing sinking ship after sinking ship…
>
A timely post for me. I wanted to subscribe to Wrike, but their free version was missing some features that was hoping to access. I do not mind paying for software, whether as a purchase or annual payment, but the jump in cost to the next levels was not a small amount. Nonetheless, I called them to ask if there was some middle ground, knowing that it was a long shot. The gentleman that I spoke with seemed very helpful, and did state that the enterprise version of the software ran $1,500USD/yr for 10 users, and that he might be able to work up a price for me. Now, I do not expect good software to be free, but if Adobe can offer their Creative Cloud package (Photoshop and Liightroom) for $120USD/yr, I was hoping that a simpler software package like Wrike could initially be priced at a more competitive rate. I did not want to discuss rates with the rep until I really knew that this was the program that I wanted, so he was kind enough to let me know that I could trial any of the versions when I wished. I realize that the enterprise market is where the money is, but is it really that hard to offer up something in the middle ground? I do not want to be a drain, but I do not have the resources of a company to expense my software. While I was treated very well, I did feel a bit as if I were asking to use the facilities in the first class cabin while riding in coach. It also made me wonder how all of these independent developers who sell their products for $25-75USD survive in the long run, but that is a topic for another discussion and thread.
—Ken