Re: D8 manuals - RIP ?

From: Nick Hodges (TeamB) (nickhodges_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 01/21/04 

Date: 21 Jan 2004 08:38:58 -0700

Will DeWitt Jr. wrote:

> In a nutshell, it is shortsighted, and indicates to me a
> misunderstanding by Borland of who their customers are (see that Pulse
> poll on BDN that indicates BDN participants want printed manuals more
> than online help or other mediums). Maybe that poll was rigged, but
> if it wasn't, you have to agree that for Borland to stop including
> printed docs in the face of such poll results would look *pretty bad*.

I was right, I could have written your response for you. ;-)

It may be shortsighted -- time will tell. I could be wrong. I could
be right. The market will certainly tell Borland very clearly.

As for "looking bad"? Maybe, but I am pretty sure that Borland weighed
that into the decision.

> Sure, and this would be the non-lemming thing to do-- innovate and
> make yet another selling point for your product. Have you ever
> considered getting into the automobile manufacturing business? All
> other things being equal, I'd buy a car with this capability.

I've never considered the automobile business, but I venture to guess
it won't be long before that is how all cars are delivered.

As for me -- I'd buy a software package with this capability as well.

> In the volume Borland orders printed docs in (assuming the Borland
> trumpeting of "each version of Delphi outselling previous versions" is
> true and accurate and not just a clever numbers game), adding more
> pages would probably not account for much.

Well, I would suspect that both the page count and the weight of those
pages do have incremental, measurable costs. I remember Borland C++
3.1 -- that box was, literally, a foot and a half long. Seriously. I
can't even imagine a company doing that now.

(Note: I just realized, having mentioned the above, that shelf-space
is also may be a factor in this as well)

> In fact, again, here's a situation where you're
> innovating a bit rather than being a lemming-- rather than printing
> out 1000+ page reference manuals, leave those to your customers to
> purchase seperately or print on their own. But STILL include the
> helpful guides that can be read while away from the PC (the language
> reference and the developer's guide).

Why those two? Maybe other people would want different manuals? Or
maybe just include all the manuals as PDF's and let the consumer decide
which to have printed?

> A trend that, again, referring back to that Pulse poll on BDN, appears
> to fly in the face of what Borland's customers want.

Yes, that may very well be true. But of course, there are more factors
to consider than "The customer wants it". <cue Derek's response
here...> I want the architect version for $49. So do a lot of others.
But of course, Borland won't do that, because it would be business
suicide. +All+ of the decisions like this involve costs (customers
don't like it) and benefits (COGS goes down). All have to be carefully
weighed and considered. Not all of such decisions will fall out on the
"customer-wants-it" side.

> Sure, but printing manuals and staffing call centers are apples and
> oranges again-- a call center that was as reactive as it needed to be
> would need to be staffed by possibly hundreds of people (to remain
> available 24/7 anyways).

I don't agree here -- both are expenses at make customers happier, but
might drive the company out of business. I see a clear connection
between the two.

> That's a lot of hourly wages to be paying,
> not to mention the office space and equipment needed to facilitate
> such an operation. Printed manuals on the other hand is much
> simpler, and in volume, your cost per unit decreases.

But they are costs just the same, and they have all sorts of hidden
costs. You have to manage the contract with the printers. You have to
ship and store them. You have to construct a bigger box, which means
you have to deal with retailers who may not want the box that big. You
have to pay for the ink and paper, and you have to take the time to lay
them out, and you have to ship the boxes with the manuals in them
and......

In other words, it isn't as simple as "call kinkos and stick it in the
box". It costs real money.

> Unless Borland has secretly been having gold weaved into
> the paper, the "it's cheaper" excuse isn't going to hold a whole lot
> of weight with me.

I understand. And your view, and the view of those whose thinking is
similar to yours, was almost certainly factored into the decision.
However, those costs and decisions remain very real to Borland, and
there are undoubtedly factors involved that we don't even know about.
For instance, I'll be that the channel tells companies like Borland
"Your box can only be this big". That's a factor.

> I again defer to the Pulse poll-- Borland's customers disgree
> resoundingly with this "trend". Coupled with the recent price jumps
> on all of Borlands products, this is a recipe for disaster: a product
> that costs more and comes with less out of the box.

Well, we'll see, eh? There are plenty of companies who succeed with
this recipe. It doesn't always spell disaster.

> Here's hoping PDF's are made available online at least, and printed
> docs make a glorious return in Delphi 9.

I am all for PDF's, but if I had to guess, you won't see the printed
manuals in the box in the future. I do wonder, though, how much it
would cost to get, say, a 250 page PDF printed and bound at Kinkos. 

-- 
Nick Hodges (TeamB)
Lemanix Corporation - (http://www.lemanix.com)
Improve the quality of Delphi!  Get your bugs into QC:
http://qc.borland.com

Relevant Pages

  • Re: D8 manuals - RIP ?
    ... misunderstanding by Borland of who their customers are (see that Pulse ... poll on BDN that indicates BDN participants want printed manuals more ... reference material (VCL reference, CLX reference, references to the ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Stop the negativism!
    ... We've heard this for a few years from Borland, ... told that it's strange that they are not doing what their customers ... Download Counters data has covered all countries Borland does ... The number of registrations since Delphi 2005 does not give them ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Go, software activation, go!
    ... since honest people and serious customers would ... enforced, it should be bullet proof and absolutely reliable, to avoid ... Borland ever fails to allow legally entitled people to maintain access to ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Why arent you upgrading?
    ... we've seen "Microsoft already did ... they don't need Switzerland Borland anymore. ... the few .NET users Delphi ever had mostly now are gone to ... customers the moment they become available to Microsoft customers. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Cat among the pigeons......
    ... business use, the IT industry is now run by the corporation, not the ... The BEST thing Borland can do to make any and all of its products ... communication with our customers. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)