Submitted by jan_rifkinson on 2009/01/11 13:20
Pierre, According to Site Stats, there are 60 members of this forum.  May I ask if you know how many people have actually downloaded & have tried / are trying / are working with IQ?  I ask this pointed question to gauge how much time I will spend working with the program no matter how creative it is. I've gone thru several of these types of programs & am frustrated by the amts of time I put in only to find that the developer abandons the effort, etc.  I understand there are no guarantees but I am interested in your response.  Mind you, I'm am wishing / praying for your every success. This is just a selfish question from my POV.  Thanks.
 
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Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

Comments

Just out of curiosity, you think that knowing the number of downloads is going to help you make an informed decision about the long term viability of the product that is still in beta and not yet being officially promoted?!  Do you now how many companies have gone under that have had millions of downloads?  Downloads is only one metric.  There is overhead.  It would appear Pierre's is very low and he does not need to sell 1001 copies next week to stay in business.  There is length of time in business.  This product has been under consistent development for several years, so it is obviously not your typical "get rich quick web 2.0" product.  There is the performance of the product.  This product is truly unique.  Having said all this, I think it is obvious there is a higher risk using this product than Microsoft Outlook.  It seems to me you either believe in the product and want to use it for what it does for you and help it succeed, or you take the safe road.  I understand your concerns and don't mean to be argumentative, I have to seriously consider such issues when purchasing for my business, especially if a large investment is involved or a large a amount of work.  But this is a free beta :-) and the cost of the program is low!  I think we have to accept that it's a total unknown where any small product/company like this is going to be 5 years from now.  Other than choosing something like Microsoft Outlook, I'm not sure what else would be safer, and none of them that I know is as good.

jan_rifkinson

2009/01/11 14:00

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Points taken, David. Nevertheless, I'm still curious about the # of people who have shown interest in this product.  I have spent several decades supporting independent developers with my time & money & gladly support Pierre's efforts as well.
 
As for other products, I suppose that depends on what your interests / needs are.  In this category, I think there is Zoot, ADM, UltraRecall.  They are in various stages of development & abandonment. I started with Lotus Agenda many years ago
 
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Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA
HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

KeithB

2009/01/11 14:23

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From following the old forum since Feb 08, and the donationcoder thread, I'm confident this program will be around awhile. Also it's comforting to know he has similar software in place at companies.
 
I too, am interested in "numbers", as I suspect a lot of the Ecco crowd are silently evaluating/using, or have gone back. The old forum had some enthusiastic fans coming from Ecco.
 

Hi Jan,
 
I was tracking downloads until about 1 year ago, at which state it was around 2000. I stoppped tracking it to open up the market, as it is no longer necessary to register to download. It is therefore very difficult to evaluate. I do know that the download page is being visited at approx 1000 per month.
 
That said, there is little I can say or do (more) to reassure users, other than say that I'm 100% dedicated to this project. This (unique?) community web space design and support is another example of the seriousness my work.
 
I've written this in the past (at outlinersoftware.com)
 
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quant wrote:
>Pierre, are you by any chance planning to stop the development in the foreseeable future? I?m very wary of one-person software development ...

It seems that it is medium sized companies which are finding it hard (Kinook, GemX). I took a very different approach. From the start, IQ was built to be used by companies, often replacing expensive database designs which would otherwise require MS Access or SQL Server. It is multi-user from the ground up. It supports equations, VBScript, and excellent live links to other office apps.

As a consultant, I’ve sold IQ to companies at $500 a piece, and for them, even at that price, it was the most “bang for the money”. One company has 8 users networked, and use its remote database links to pull data from their user extranet. Pivot tables and charts are used for monthly reporting.

I then added other features (live search, web capture, Gantt, Calendar, Outlook sync) to grab individual user market (Consultants, myBase, EN, UR, MI users).

This dev. plan will stay. It is the best way for me to ensure sustainable development. I don’t hesitate to buy components to jump start features (e.g. Chilkat HTML grabber gave me picture perfect web page capture in no time at all)

In summary, I have no plans to stop working on InfoQube.

BTW, Coincidently, I’m pre-releasing today a new version which includes an Outlook-like calendar, something that was often requested by UR users.

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jan_rifkinson

2009/01/12 08:10

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Pierre, Thanks for your reply. I hope you know I only wish you every success w this endeavor & I will try to support your efforts any way I can as I have for other independent developers.  The only comments I have are:
 
(1) I think making the decision to add a good, functioning, useful calendar is extremely important & missing in many similar efforts. Creating priorities & linking data to dates is a must do in this busy world of ours. What could more central than a calendar? Combine that with all the data gathering, storage, organizing & displaying makes IQ an extremely powerful tool.
(2) However, I think IQ is a lot to get one's arms around because of its flexibility & I think your biggest challenge will be making it more user friendly.
 
Just my .02 (probably worth .01 these days)
 
--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA
HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Pierre_Admin

2009/01/12 09:57

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I agree 100% with both of your comments. Your 2 cents is worth much more to me! Thanks

Well, I just recently became aware of InfoQube and consider it The Answer to what I have long been looking for.  I use Ecco Pro, but not very happily, as it is opaque in many respects.  That is, I don't mean to demean Ecco, since it is superior to any other PIM I have tried and we do use it, but Ecco is a closed world, limited in growth, development, capacity, and outlook (e.g., it doesn't really understand networks and the Internet).
 
I have not only downloaded 3 copies, I have bought 3 licenses.  When InfoQube releases, I'll happily upgrade for pay again.  I am a software developer. Contrary to much of the "open source fervor", most people mean "free" as in "free beer" when they hear/use/take open source.  I believe developers of good products deserve to be paid for their efforts.
 
I obviously cannot speak for anyone else.
 
I do not know 2% of all InfoQube can do yet, but I very much like what I see, and want it to continue in the direction it's going.
 
 
 
 

A small update on IQ popularity:
  • Main web site:
    • 2500 visitors per month
    • 1000 unique visitors per month
    • 4000 page views per month
    • 300 Program download  per month
       
  • Community web site:
    • 3000 pages per day
    • 175 unique visitors per day
    • 1750 unique visitors per month
(of course, some of these are Google, Yahoo and our other virtual friends...)