Triggered by the piece I wrote this morning on Skype’s platform business, and Andy’s and Om’s postings, Jim Courtney took the time to write a lengthy piece illustrating how Symantec’s approach to Microsoft won the day over Quarterdeck’s approach.
As Jim points out in his piece, a successful ISV is both tied to the platform vendor, and innovating a generation or two ahead of the platform vendor. If your business is building small featurettes that will shortly be subsumed into the platform (as some Skype ISV’s have done), then you really don’t have a business. You’re a prototyping shop, showing the platform vendor which features to build.
This is well worth reading. Thanks for writing it, Jim.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
