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Apple releases new... everything

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mgz:

--- Quote from: furuoshiki on May 28, 2009, 10:37:21 PM ---Which is why I re-iterate PLAY BIG OR GO HOME. :-\

You know you are playing with big dogs that are capable of getting the best. This is why the software companies that are most versatile set their prices high because there is a price premium for versatility (since it makes you less reliant on consistent updates which means less long-term revenue for the software company.) They know the big dogs will pay top dollar for low aggregate costs in the long-run.

However, with government intervention this can all change and this price-setting can be put to an end, allowing younger companies to utilize experience curve effects and be competitive in the long-run. But as a small firm you have to know WHEN and WHERE to be cheap.

Part of being cash-strapped yet smart about it is knowing when you have to cough up the big bucks to prevent you from having to cough up even more cash later on. There is no possible way that there is such a grandiose difference in choices for application suites for firms.(10K vs. 200K???) Perhaps if you gave a realistic example then I could visualize it more.

Let's say Marks Gears LLC needs an application that will enable it to index all of it's inventory in real time. It will cost 10K for a custom program and 50K for a more universal one. Aggregate cost over 5 years will end up being 200K for the lower priced one while costs will only be 100K for the one that is 50K upfront. Marks Gears has a goal of over-taking Barry's Gears LLC in the next 5 years. Marks decides that cutting costs is most important than future planning to get over his competitor so he takes the 10K application.

Barry's gears decides to take the risk of paying for the 50K one in an effort to gain a long-term advantage over Marks and other competitors. The "X" factor: As it turns out 3 years later a valuable update appears in the 50K application that makes inventory checking almost 200% faster. For Marks this update is not available. For Barry it will only cost 10K to update. At the end of 5 years Barry only ends up spending just under 100K while gaining a valuable increase in sales due to using the higher efficiency program.

Marks has spent over 200K and now faces a huge problem, because not only has he fallen behind Barry, but now Barry wants to buy him out. The"Y" factor:(Apparently the people who made Barry's software said that they could easily merge all of Marks information into Barry's database in the event of a buy-out; However, the reverse would never be true.)

Game Over Marks.

Note: There is no "X" or "Y" factor in Marks application because it is limited, outdated, archaic and therefore a dead weight.

Adapt = Survive
Stagnate = Die

Using programs that cannot merge, or be flexible as a small business = SUICIDE!!!

Part of competition is long-term strategic action. If a firm is not capable of this you can kiss them goodbye!!!

They say something like only 25% of firms survive past the 1st year. That number becomes 5% towards the 2nd year. Then it becomes 1% around 5 years. Perhaps those 1% are the ones thinking long-term???

--- End quote ---
But none of that matters overstretching your financial means as a company will drive your company into the ground much faster the compromising your needs until you can afford to fill the void completely

furuoshiki:
It also goes back to that 1% success rate. If you can't plan for the future and cut costs at the same time you are fucked either way. Only firms that know when to cough up the big bucks will survive past 2-5 years.

sdedalus83:
Horseshit.

The vast majority of small businesses can get by just fine with prepackaged software(and in some cases commissioned custom add ons for prepackaged software), no matter how tied they become to a platform because of it.  Only when a piece of software will form the basis of a medium or small firm's operations is it ever worth doing the development in house to ensure long term operation of a single system.

The need for legacy support will never go away because providing operational stability for businesses is far more important than appealing to the aesthetic sensibilities of geeks.

furuoshiki:
Dude it's not about aesthetics...it's about having your app programed by a fly-by-night company that used a language that isn't at all common. For example I overheard one company next door to my job today talking about how they use Ruby or some shit and the only programmers that they were able to find for a problem they need solving preferred to work in "C" only or something. On top of it I overheard a speaker conversation where some a-hole software geek was saying:

"Why the fuck are they using Ruby? That shit is gay I don't fuck with Ruby. That shit is useless and their shit is probably fucked up. I wouldn't touch that shit because I don't want to be held accountable for that piece of shit language's fucking mistakes...My friend already went through that shit so we only touch programs made with languages we know in depth."

What do you think is going to happen when the original dude disappears and you need to use another software engineer or company who isn't familiar with that language? You are fucked.

I know next to nothing about programming languages but it sounds awfully a lot like construction and renovations. The same shit goes down. Other professionals critique the previous guy's shotty work and complain about the shitty medium being used. No matter the industry it seems like shitty and incomplete patchwork is always the issue. But you have many more welders than software programmers. And unlike a home improvement job, lay persons often understand next to nothing about the problems that can occur with these languages.

And just like home improvement doing a shitty foundational job and using shitty materials will give you a shitty result down the road.

flaresignal:

--- Quote from: furuoshiki on May 29, 2009, 07:44:46 PM ---Dude it's not about aesthetics...it's about having your app programed by a fly-by-night company that used a language that isn't at all common. For example I overheard one company next door to my job today talking about how they use Ruby or some shit and the only programmers that they were able to find for a problem they need solving preferred to work in "C" only or something. On top of it I overheard a speaker conversation where some a-hole software geek was saying:

"Why the fuck are they using Ruby? That shit is gay I don't fuck with Ruby. That shit is useless and their shit is probably fucked up. I wouldn't touch that shit because I don't want to be held accountable for that piece of shit language's fucking mistakes...My friend already went through that shit so we only touch programs made with languages we know in depth."

What do you think is going to happen when the original dude disappears and you need to use another software engineer or company who isn't familiar with that language? You are fucked.

--- End quote ---

Er... this sounds more like a case of "if you use Ruby, find people that understand the language", not a problem with the original developers' decision to code in it. Ruby, like Python, operates at a much higher level than C, and it's hardly an uncommon language for certain tasks (Ruby on Rails for Web development, etc.).

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