As I write this, Monday dot com has posted 4 days ago at their YouTube channel a 2 minute video; "Quotes & Invoices." The view count is up over 200 from what I noticed less than 24 hours ago on a this U.S. holiday weekend. I'm guessing the interest will skyrocket in the coming days.
Even Brad Freitag is enthralled with their "new" eye candy and for good reason. However, since they're eating his lunch, Claris marketing might do well to counter by posting a video with a near exact likeness but explain why Claris FileMaker is more capable due to the facts which anybody in the market should be aware of.
The Monday quote & invoice app is only in its initial stage but more threat is coming toward Claris. Carl Sagan described how playing "tit-for-tat" is the best way to fight a grave battle.
Monday at the end of their video, even says; "Strike while the iron is hot."
What's daunting to me (for FileMaker) is that Microsoft and especially Google are highly entrenched in colleges. Free, or nearly free, Visual Studio, MS Office, and free Google Drive (for all students) rule the roost.
I'm not as familiar with high schools, but I assume the same marketing by the really big companies is going on there, too.
Get 'em hooked on Google or MS in high school and you own them for life. Well, maybe...
Not quite where I was going nor what I was thinking…
Regarding IT… FileMaker's target audiences are small to medium businesses and workgroups. That is why licensing starts to become interesting at five licenses. Small businesses typically have no IT department. IT departments in medium businesses are generally accommodating. IT departments in large businesses will generally not be the initiating party. Few IT departments create small solutions. I say, in light of this knowledge, that IT managers form a poor target audience.
Business people generally don't like to wait to fulfill needs. A rapid application development platform fills needs quickly… and FileMaker does so for many without the need for IT to get things going… assuming there is even an IT department that has development capabilities. That is why I suggest that business students form an ideal target audience for awareness campaigns.
In my experience, penetration in companies generally starts with one user who creates a solution that solves a need. Features are added over time and, suddenly, management realizes the solution is either mission-critical or is difficult to cost-effectively replace. FileMaker consultants are called in only when the solution gets too large for the user, the user leaves the company or issues become too difficult to solve.
Other potential target audiences, to me, seem to be students of administration, management and some technicians – the future trackers and bean counters of businesses.
Apparently Apple refuses to bundle a starter version of FMP with each Mac sold; their rationale as I recall is they see FMP as business software, not an end user application.
I understand small and medium-sized businesses are Claris’ target market. I wonder what percentage of these SMBs have no interest in hiring an in-house developer and prefer to hire outside developers.
funny, just used the exact words ( in german of course) after last weeks Claris event, Apple even killed business related jobs in german Apple Stores three years ago...
+1
allmost 100% of my projects started this way, even my own FM-experience - although awareness was brought via bundling FM 2.1 to MS Office on my first Mac as a MSAccess replacement, was done by the local Apple dealer
@harvest, you are right!
Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are software for professionals. At the end it all depends on the good will and wisdom of all involved parties
Thanks for posting that screenshot from Apples 1985 Website. But wait...
That Product Design really looks like straight out of the 80s. Look at the bright and stylish colours. I bet this is very appealing to every Millennial.
But at least it's affordable... Ah, ok, not...
Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are Apple Software. Not so with FileMaker Pro.
That said… I suspect Apple will soon be prohibited from promoting its own software during a computer purchase. There is growing pressure to force Apple to be software neutral. I think this will apply to Apple companies' software too.
There is already a checkout-lane model in place: FDS and FBA, with different levels of access to technical information. Unfortunately this caters to only a fraction of all developers worldwide and becoming a partner is not a viable business model for all developers.
