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Re: Re: Thoughts on a Wolfram|Alpha package for

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg101954] Re: [mg101885] Re: Thoughts on a Wolfram|Alpha package for
  • From: "Elton Kurt TeKolste" <tekolste at fastmail.us>
  • Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:12:27 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <h41f31$rfv$1@smc.vnet.net> <200907202321.TAA26029@smc.vnet.net>

Although I have absolutely no data on the market for Mathematica
applications, I have a few starter ideas that might be confirmed or
refuted by virtue of our collective experience.

1)  Academic users of any product tend to use an inexpensive resource
(to wit: graduate students) to redevelop a serviceable version of needed
software rather than buy it.  (Based upon personal experience long ago
on a different product.)

2)  Alpha geeks do not reckon the cost of self-development in strictly
monetary terms as they enjoy the process of solving the problem.

3)  Products developed for a small, technical user base tend to have
weak user interfaces and documentation so that the cost of integration
may rival the cost of redevelopment.

4)  "My problem is unique and your solution is not likely to do what I
need" (i.e. "NIH")

5)  (Related to 1)  Capital expenditures come out of a different and
harder to tap funding source than person-hours.

6)  (Related to 3) If the ultimate objective of the purchaser is
marketable software, the testing requirements on purchased components
are the same as they are on developed components -- but probably not
well supported by the package.

Kurt


On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:21 -0400, "AES" <siegman at stanford.edu> wrote:
> In article <h41f31$rfv$1 at smc.vnet.net>, David Reiss <dbreiss at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Sadly 3rd party application for Mathematica sell very poorly--rarely
> > even beginning to recoup the cost to develop them.  But I could do
> > this if there were a couple of hundred users willing to purchase it.
> > 
> 
> I'd welcome your thoughts (or anyone's) on _why_ this is the case?  
> 
> (I have my own ideas, but reality checks are always useful.)
> 


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