xTalk Syntax (was Re: Andy's comments and positioning...)

[Chipp Walters]

I'm in agreement with Ken on this one. As mainly a PC user, it is obvious to
me that RR is marketing mainly at Mac users. This is because ex-HyperCard
users are the 'low hanging fruit' for RR - and a company like RR with
limited resources wants to make the easy sales first.

While Tom's GOOGLING efforts may be good for a chuckle, they are in no way
indicitive of how RR targets their tool. Ken's points are well taken. If RR
wants to be taken seriously as a professional cross-platform development
tool, they will have to change their messaging.

-Chipp


> Sorry, Dan, I respectfully disagree. Rev has had ads or been written
> about in several Mac magazines (MacWorld UK, MacAddict, MacTech), but I
> have yet to see an ad or write-up in a PC magazine (and I subscribe to a
> bunch). I don't know about UNIX mags, but perhaps someone else can
> comment on this. Do a web search for "Runtime Revolution" and see just
> how many "hits" you get for sites that advertise or promote PC
> development tools or news on the PC front.
>
> And look at the web site - the first page (after you get past the flags)
> has the words "Mac", "MacWorld" and "MacUser" all over it. I *know* this
> not the norm and is because we just came out of MacWorld, and Rev won an
> Eddy in MacWorld magazine, but for people going to the site in the last
> couple of months, it helps to form an opinion that Rev is primarily a
> Mac tool.
>
> And speaking of MacWorld, RunRev has been at conventions selling Rev,
> but what kinds of conventions? Almost exclusively Mac conventions
> (AFAIK). And once again, regardless for the reason for it, it adds to
> the "buzz" about Rev as a Mac tool.
>
> Additionally, Rev is very often compared to RealBasic - primarily known
> as a Mac development environment - and that doesn't help its image one
> bit.
>
> Finally, there are a handful of features that need to be in the product
> (IMHO) to be "taken seriously" in the PC community (ActiveX support,
> Win32 DLL access, etc.), which may be part of the reason it's not been
> covered in the PC trades.
>
> Look, I'm not trying to say that what RunRev's doing is not helping sell
> boxes, but what I *am* saying is that the groundswell of commentary on
> Rev is in the Mac community. And to shake that off and truly be a
> cross-platform tool, RunRev will need to balance the Mac marketing with
> marketing in the Windows and UNIX communities, when it is the
> appropriate time to do so.
> >