even though that article is a bit premature, I'm not unhappy that Claris gets a slap on the hand, because they're constantly way late in adopting Mac OS New features and new OS support
Yes, that'S me. I will post that 19.3 is released once that happens.
I would have preferred if the M1 support would have gone into 19.1 or 19.2.
Now I hope it comes in 19.3.
There is always the problem that a feature may get pulled in a release to fix some more bugs.
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Claris knows where their money has come from traditionally and that would shape their thinking around this discussion. However, markets conditions change and what worked in the past may not always work in the future.
I often think they should give the single machine license away freely to encourage uptake. Charge for the sharing/team uses. Having no cost for the single user would generate a much bigger user base and ( in my theory ) that would lead to much greater market share in the teams product too.
Another direction would be to clients available on all OS.
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IMHO, the exec team have left it too late to grow in a majorly way. Talking to past and current employees leads me to the conclusion that they are stuck in a rut and in the past 3 years have seen a major decrease in new customer acquisition.
There have been many revolutionary ideas pitched to current and previous executives that would have given Claris a chance at real growth, but none have been adopted and, here we are, where Claris is making the same annual revenue they have been making for 10 years. They also made a crazy decision to go down the path of moving engineers onto the âFMP replacementâ - something that was nothing more than a bunch of keynote slides featuring Sriniâs vaporware.
Some of those ideas were:
- make FMP free/freemium.
- move to a FMS-based shared license revenue model.
- create an iOS native version of FMP.
- have a 5 year plan where they didnât make any profit (Apple can afford it!) and invest the money in some real high impact marketing.
- redefine the target market as a RAD instead of pretending itâs a low/no code product
There were many more, but I thought it important that people donât waste too much time on this. Claris, and their relationship with Apple is very weird; Apple donât appear convinced they should be in the business software market (otherwise why havenât they just purchased a player like Airtable?) Yet Apple also want Claris to keep returning the same profit year after year while using fewer engineers, smaller marketing budgets and declining customer base. It just doesnât add up.
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update: Claris: FileMaker 19 erhält native Unterstßtzung fßr Macs mit Apple-Prozessor | MacGadget
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There are some examples...
The 'sparrow' example. There are regions in europe where the sparrows are almost gone (due to several factors).
We got quite a lot in our garden - and since they seem to love it to get feeded, we got some spots for them to get grain.
The effect: Well, they started to increase the 'production' a lot...
Meaning: FileMaker/Claris, if You want to increase usership, give them some food... Claris is on the 'noCode' / 'lowCode' road, but to try that out, one has to pay about 700 Swiss Francs (single version)... that won't work. (beside of the fact that FM is not 'noCode/lowCode' (ever tried to use custom functions, own menues (etc)?)
I got a few jobs where I have to make some statements like 'FileMaker - Quo Vadis' and those customers want to know how easy it is to find FileMaker developers (future perspective).
Ok, there are some of them out in the wild - but a lot of them is about 'my generation', means way too old.
How can we get younger developers here? How can we get companies that are not one-man-shows (more than 3 employees..)?
FileMaker as as a RDS is IMHO very good, they directed their path into the right direction - but the market for younger developers seems to be dry )-:
Further on, the new naming (19.3) looks like a patch version, not like a new one. Single users with a V19.x can use the update option from the menus ('group' licenses with an outdated maintenance can downlod, but can not install...)
I'm afraid that there is not enough information for the 'new' version for getting new customers. Try to get something from the official website, the price for a 'paid' version for example..
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I believe a couple of times in this thread the thought was mentioned to make the client software free/freemium. I really liked this idea, agreeing with the underlying thought that by removing a price barrier on getting people hooked on FMP, that there would be a much more widespread interest/appreciation for the product.
But just yesterday morning I was thinking about this, and how, if I were in Claris' position, I would be just as wary of this idea as I would be of devs building their own software to replace the FMP client, and distributing something privately built to connect to FMS via DAPI or OData.
My thought was that things could go in the other direction: Devs would start using FMP to build (free!) front-end solutions to connect to an SQL backend, leaving FMS out of the picture, and no revenue stream for Claris other than perhaps the price of a single license of a developer version of FMS.
So, as much as I love the idea of attracting a larger (and younger) audience to FMP by making it free, there might have to be some thoughtfulness around this. I still love the idea, but I guess what I am saying is that I can see one reason why Claris might be wary of it.
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Thanks for the update link @FileKraft.
In reading the (translated) version of the article, I was reminded of that time not too long ago, when it seemed like all restaurants and food suppliers in the US were in a race to label as many of their goods as possible as "low carb". I can't help but feel similarity between that and the current marketing push towards "low code".
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If Claris wants the attention of younger devs, they need to do something about their mobile and web offerings. There's nothing inspiring to me about either, and I'm 49. Imagine what it's like for someone who's 29. After a couple decades, I'm only involved with FileMaker insofar as I use it as a backend with the DAPI, and build Swift (UIKit, SwiftUI) apps on top. Without the DAPI, I'd have left a few years ago already. That may not jive with Claris' existing N-user licensing model, but it's the reality of things. Young devs will just spin up a new instance somewhere for free (Firebase, CloudKit, etc.), that scales more or less infinitely, and pick a nice front-end framework for some modern UI. That's their baseline. So, if Claris wants to reach those devs, they need to meet them where they are.
I'd like to see some kind of single-user license with a hosted Server, and bunch of DAPI/OData bandwidth. That's what would get my attention. It won't move desktop licenses, but you're not going to entice young devs with a 5-user, $1140 (USD) entry fee.
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I agree 100%
and adding to this there are - at least in Germany - no points those two could meet or get connected. If students start in universities they go the math-languages-engeneering path. Somewhere along the path they will cross the database parts. They will learn about programming and interaction with users. Integration with API for this or that purpose. Maybe they will have to deal with UI design in rare occasions. Some of them will master more and go into research. But they will never get in touch with FileMaker and the like. So young pro devs coming out of the universities curiculae can't be Claris target.
Their target in my opinion were/are the self educated inhouse developers who get to the conclusion that Excel isn't enough. And this market gets tighter by the minute. Integration of different webbased solutions via APIs gets easier. Office applications move to the cloud. Office data including the whole email and communication stuff follow or have been there from the beginning. Holding your data in your own domain isn't en vogue anymore. Being the master of your business data isn't either. All secure in the cloud. Thus Claris wants to follow the mainstream. From their perspective this is OK. We can follow too.
Question is: if we want to hold our status quo are we machine breakers from the last century or are we visonaries because the next revolution will be getting ML-KI etc. back local and bring back hosting and security into private enclaves with easy toolsets manageable for the masses.
2 cents to the weekend
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FileMaker used to be a tool for everybody who wants to build his own business solution at ease. 300+ Euro or Dollar seemed to be a rather reasonable price. Once you got addicted to FM this could easily become a multi user solution or even a business model with thousands of runtimes, like in my case.
Nowadays the price to enter the platform is way too high. I would never pay this amount just to test if I can work out something usable with Filemaker.
In the meantime I built a lot of useful tools with FM. Not all of them are classic databases, some of them are converting tools, games, even a TV Player! Therefore Clarisâ focus on in-house developers is way too small right now.
To me it seems like Claris is desperately trying to squeeze more milk out of a starving cow.
To answer the original question, this is my advice for Claris:
- Make FMP cheaper or even free.
- Make programming standalone apps for iOS, macOS, windows and Android possible again and make it even easier (no SDK, no Notarizing, no Codesigning).
- Promote FMP as the No. 1 and most versatile tool to build data driven Apps for all platforms.
- Promote FMP everywhere where developers meet (and not in ridiculous TV spots). Maybe Tim Cook can lend a hand in the next Apple Keynote?!
- Make money from user licenses not Developer licenses (e.g. Runtimes, Apps, Concons, you name it)
- Do also listen to your developers, not to your marketing team only. We are all in the same boat!
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And to stay within that analogy:
Bring your cow outside where there is some fresh grass!
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Yup, these know all of this. If I am right, Firebase has free plans and other not for free. I have used a Firebase free plan to host a PWA (progressive Web App), because PWA have to be hosted on a secure site. I tested the app from there and delivered the app to my customer.
Claris has (had ?) a program where one can get kind of FDS free for one year. Did they reach developers by advertising in proper channels ? Did that succeed ? I don't know.
We, enthusiasts wish FileMaker can get much more popular, but it looks like it's not the case. Will it ever be the case one can ask ?
It's understandable Claris want to make more money with FileMaker, but it seems that they are not going the right way.
How come AutoCAD became such a success ? The program have been so easy to pirate for years. Then Autodesk implemented a license system that has been very difficult to bypass. And they forced the subscription system to their users, by increasing the price of upgrades. Guess what . . . they upset a lot of them that bought compatible applications.
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I think the people at Claris know all this and I don't know the reasons they decided on in the past. I still hope they come up with some changes to licensing.
And if that includes giving out FMP free of charge to students, young developers or everyone, that would be fine. But I don't know what they calculated on lost revenue this way. But making it free would allow it to be included on demo Macs in Apple Stores or at Universities to make it more known. As well as a welcome screen with a tutorial.
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to make that clear: I do not want to get a tool for free! I earn my income with FM and it's ok to pay for tools.
Just for beginners, the single user lic' is too expensive.. more important: Students here will get no information about FM during their student-time, nothing, nada. (well.. some have some info - but that's like this: 'oh - that's something like excel')
I got my first FM License with Office for Mac, the Apple dealer bundled FM with MS-Office as a replacement for MS-Access in the early 1990s to make the Office package a Pro version. What a deal and I think that must have created some customers for Claris
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Claris should eat their own dog food. Proof is in the pudding ..
// also remove bottle necks etc..
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Claris intended Bento to be a âstarterâ database for new users and apparently are no longer interested in targeting a lower-end market. (Perhaps they see little potential to grow those clients from 1-2 users to 5-10 or more.) Their real target market seems to be small-to-medium size businesses with 50-100 users. If thatâs the case their business decisions regarding licensing make more sense.
I don't mind the pricing if quality high.
Isnât it what they have been repeating at each Devcon? They target small work groups or small groups within larger organizations (e.g. department).
It is only recently that they added SDK to their model.
I believe that the profound dichotomy between developers and Clarisâ interests has its source in the product itself.
MARKET X
FileMaker is a product that is exceptionally well suited for the customization needed by creative emerging small companies, by solopreneurs, by small local commerces that are reasonably profitable to provide a consistent livelihood to its owners and few employees, that need some automation to be sustainable in todayâs markets.
Often times, discovery of FileMaker occurs organically, by the owner or their close circle of people. These are citizen developers, in some cases, programmers getting things done with the easy platform.
MARKET Y
The citizens developers type that seem to fit into Claris declared target market are those employees in a department that become power users and bring solutions to their colleagues.
FileMaker is a product that does very well for small work groups, and even bigger groups, as seen in Colleges and Universities departments. It integrates acceptably well with other systems.
FileMaker for X and Y
For X
Independent developers are closer to Market X. They understand very well the use case and their clients needs. The product allows for RAD so the short time for development makes hiring a developer or a coach to help with development more affordable. However, for developers, that means the need to have a lot of clients, working long hours, and in the end, not that big of an income being self employed should be to make it worth. In the current flow of constant updates, this market can easily crumble under the technological costs and burden.
Small development teams fair a bit better if they can offer an integration of services to this market.
Hosting, SLA, etc.
The only way to really make money, in this market, is to be able to sell a product. Otherwise, you are always selling your time, which comes in limited amounts. To get out of the hamster wheel, you need some "passive" (or semi passive) income. The four paths that currently exist to achieve that are:
- specialised development. You develop an expertise in an area and can "reuse" the material in your toolbox and specialised experience to approach and address that clientele.
- add-ons: you won't make a fortune but every morsel helps
- products: often a consequence of (1), products can be sold in as many copies as you can support. The latter imposing a quality of development and number of dedicated resources.
- plugins: Similar to products, the market can be limited to other developers or wider, depending of the integrability of the plugin into a product. Insuring proper support and updates is essential for adoption by developers who must count on them in their product or service offer.
The tricky part is that you need a bigger team to dedicate time to internal development and to support. And the resources to fund that. That or the ability to not sleep much for several years.
For Y
Small work groups that can afford custom development or to have an internal resource dedicated to develop and maintain the system are the target for Claris. Let us not forget that they make their revenues by selling licences. Not by offering development services. Nevertheless, at that size of group or business department, the citizen developer will eventually reach limits that will warrant to hire or contract with programmers or developers that can conceive complex systems. Since FileMaker isn't a language, you need a specific crop of developers that can think like programmers despite coding in a pseudo-language. Claris Partners Program is Claris offering development and support by proxy.
Some recent moves by Claris, from an outsider's perspective, suggest that they are suffocating in a one product business and see their growth or survival in developing new offers.
Target Market vs Market Share
We have been trying to tell them to increase their market share by including Target Market X in their target.
If I have understood correctly their messages of the last conferences and blog, they are not reconsidering their target market. That means that the question for them is "How can we increase our share of Market Y".
We can address the question their way or we must find arguments and solutions that will make Market X interesting (really interesting) for ourselves and for Claris. That means finding solutions to the inherent problems of that market.
We can be competitors or "coopetitors". Both Claris and us dig in the same pockets for revenues. Bigger pockets, bigger revenues. Smaller pockets require some way of making them able to sustain both Claris and us. Cooperations of specialised trades can be one way to achieve that.
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