Re: Another point about Mathematica 8.0
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg116542] Re: Another point about Mathematica 8.0
- From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com>
- Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 05:12:25 -0500 (EST)
Kevin J. McCann wrote: > I believe that was his really long 10th anniversary speech, and I recall > that he did say that it was the only time the company lost significant > money after the initial startup. > > Kevin Mathematica 2.2 came out I think early in 1993. Mathematica 3.0 appeared around October of 1996. It is possible that Wolfram Research lost money at some point during those years, though I think we were told the the year-by-year figures were all (perhaps ever so slightly) in the black. I mention this simply to point out that any significant loss of revenue would have been almost certainly due to a very long development cycle, rather than to the particulars of business management at that time. I doubt the then-COO was supportive of that long cycle with no intermediate releases. I will take this opportunity to mention that I do not in general speak for my employer. In this instance I quite certainly am not doing so. Daniel Lichtblau Wolfram Research > On 2/17/2011 5:21 AM, Murray Eisenberg wrote: >> I vaguely recall the following, paraphrased, statement by Stephen >> Wolfram at one of the conferences his company organized. At one point, >> he brought in business people to run the business aspect of the company, >> and it was a big mistake. (He may even have said that was the only time >> the company didn't make a profit; that's the part I don't recall at all >> precisely.) >> >> On 2/16/2011 4:34 AM, AES wrote: >>> 3) I don't think Wolfram is much interested in what my business model >>> for Mathematica would be (and that might be good judgement on their >>> part!). But if they asked, I'd say that I'd like a tiered or modular >>> (or whatever you want to call it) approach where increasing more capable >>> versions of Mathematica were available at increasing price points -- >>> just like most every other product in the marketplace.