No one knows that business more than Nick but this part struck me as possibly faulty logic:
"So with each new version I tried to simplify the user interface, and dropped features & options that complicated the product. FeedDemon became more popular as a result, but you’d never know it if you visited my online support forums."
I'm wondering if this is correlation problem - in other words, Nick perceives that the popularity of FeedDemon is due to his simplifying the design, however it is also possible that a rise in both the awareness of what RSS is/does and a corresponding search for tools led to the popularity. It could also be the additional press/marketing received from the Newsgator acquisition helped. It could be that Google Reader's concept was great but people decided it was too simple/not good enough and they wanted a power tool for RSS (thus Google found/educated people for Nick).
I'm just wondering if the foundation of Nick's particular business was built with the power users and it was the power users who got the word out about FeedDemon. If that's the case, then he's drawing the wrong conclusion and thus the future of FeedDemon is in danger.
I've been a FD user for 5+ years, I guess, and I certainly was one of those bloggers talking about it back in 2006 or 2007. I'm certainly in the power users category so I don't really know that I can be objective here.
"So with each new version I tried to simplify the user interface, and dropped features & options that complicated the product. FeedDemon became more popular as a result, but you’d never know it if you visited my online support forums."
I'm wondering if this is correlation problem - in other words, Nick perceives that the popularity of FeedDemon is due to his simplifying the design, however it is also possible that a rise in both the awareness of what RSS is/does and a corresponding search for tools led to the popularity. It could also be the additional press/marketing received from the Newsgator acquisition helped. It could be that Google Reader's concept was great but people decided it was too simple/not good enough and they wanted a power tool for RSS (thus Google found/educated people for Nick).
I'm just wondering if the foundation of Nick's particular business was built with the power users and it was the power users who got the word out about FeedDemon. If that's the case, then he's drawing the wrong conclusion and thus the future of FeedDemon is in danger.
I've been a FD user for 5+ years, I guess, and I certainly was one of those bloggers talking about it back in 2006 or 2007. I'm certainly in the power users category so I don't really know that I can be objective here.