Many software creators now follow users rather than trying to get users to follow them
So which version of Gmail are you using now? Did you say “What Version”? You know… version… like Windows “XP” or “Vista”, Office “2007” or Adobe Acrobat “9.0”. The question may sound rhetorical, even nonsensical, because Gmail doesn’t have versions.
Time to spill a little secret — the old method of selling software through versioned, “big-bang” releases every few years is disappearing fast. It is being replaced with a method where software lives on the Internet and is continuously updated, as a result of which the user always has the “latest and greatest” version. Some of the leading knights of the old school were Microsoft Windows, Adobe Photoshop and SAP ERP. The samurais of the new method or “cloud computing” are Google Apps, Salesforce.com and Zoho.(This story appears in the 27 August, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)