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This is not the first time this has come around, but it is incredibly interesting to think about the possibilities. One thing I think that needs to be pointed out however is that fact that Apple (read Steve Jobs) would never allow the current Adobe products to ship as they are now. They are a UI nightmare. Given that if Apple were to buy them I would guess that it would be 2 years before we saw new versions as Apple would completely re-write the interfaces. Few people understand Microsoft better than Tandy Trower, who worked at the company from 1981-2009. Trower was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, an endeavor that some advised him was a path toward a ruined career. Four product managers had already tried and failed to ship Windows before him, and he initially thought that he was being assigned an impossible task. In this follow-up to yesterday’s story on the future of Windows, Trower recounts the inside story of his experience in transforming Windows from vaporware into a product that has left an unmistakable imprint on the world, 25 years after it was first released. Ed Sutherland: In a memo, the rival wireless carrier sees the new Apple gadget as “an opportunity for VZW” and urges employees to promote its MiFi wireless router as a stop-gap connection method until a 3G iPad is available in late April. I for one already have a 2-year contract with Verizon for my MiFi so I certainly will not pay for a 3G iPad and their service. In other words I will be using my MiFi. The VZ network is not as fast as AT&T, but it is far more reliable. So my thinking is that it is better to have a working car, than a Ferrari that is always in the shop. Nick Bilton: Starting next month, the more than 400 million Facebook users could begin seeing a new kind of status update flow through their news feed: the current locations of their friends. I can’t wait for the retarded comments to come pouring in about where people are. Better yet I can’t wait to see all the Lamebook posts of people being caught cheating because of this. So good. Now, wrap that concept in a Star Wars motif – set in the present day, with the second-tier burger chains as the rebels – each, by themselves, without mutual aid, battling the 12,000-plus restaurant McEmpire. The situation is most dire, for the upstarts control but a few significant islands of territory amid the overwhelming and darkly-rendered influence of the McForce. That is unreal. Less is More: Wedding ProgramsAKA: Why I went from a wedding program booklet to a one-sided half page card. Planning a wedding is a pain in the ass, and I am saying that not having done most of the planning work (thank you Erin). As we are on the home stretch and running short on time to the wedding there was a couple of things that I had to do this weekend: make the place cards, and the wedding programs. Ken Fisher: Starting late Friday afternoon we conducted a 12 hour experiment to see if it would be possible to simply make content disappear for visitors who were using a very popular ad blocking tool. All I want to point out is that this is a dumb solution to their problem. They are mad because people are costing them money, so their response is to block those people. So they still don’t make money and they piss off customers? Clearly they didn’t go to marketing classes in college. Idiots.
"I like candy in general, he said, picking up a packet. Im pretty favorably disposed toward candy."
– Warren Buffett. I have to say I always wondered this, thanks NY TImes for clearing up that mystery. Software as a Service Pricing: Basecamp StudyThis morning I read this article from The Economist, and it got me thinking about 37Signals and the software the I pay to use from them. I thought that I would look at what their per unit pricing is, to determine what it would cost to use their services on a pay per usage basis, rather than choosing between the plans that they offer. To start I took a look at Basecamp (not this is my companies affiliate link, if you hate me Google the software then I don’t get any money), their most popular software. The three factors I looked at are: Data Storage, Projects, Time Tracking. I broke the monthly cost in half and figured out what they charged on average for 1 project, and 1 gigabyte of data, then added $2 if you use Time Tracking. Breaks down like this:
(I have completely ignored the free plan for this analysis, as it only allows one user.) My company currently pays $49 / month for the Plus plan, but we don’t use it to the full potential. Here is what we currently use:
Now we have 3 too many projects to go down to the cheaper plan, plus we would lose time tracking, so we are staying put. However based on the usage charges I calculated above, if 37Signals were to switch to a pay per use model I would only pay:
Should they switch the model? As a user I think they should, it would save me money. As a business owner, there is no way I would, unless of course they have a large amount of users in the Max plan range. Say a company (media / design / high data user) uses the following:
As it stands they would have to pay for the Max plan at $149 / mo, however using a pay per usage model, they would end up paying $248.50 / mo. That is a huge difference. So this type of model would then benefit the low usage users substantially and lay off the financial burden on the high usage folks, or essentially replicate the U.S. Tax structure. An interesting thought, one I am sure 37Signals has thought about. As a user it would be far more appealing to me to have a pay per usage account, as I would not have to worry about upping the plan, or lowering it. In fact it would make it far cheaper to start using as well, because if we didn’t end up using the service, then we would not have to pay much at all (I would recommend that 37Signals have a minimum charge.
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