Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Dropbox Succeeded and Syncplicity Didn’t

wetzler.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 70 posts

Re: Why Dropbox Succeeded and Syncplicity Didn’t

#5

Post by larrik »

jcromartie wrote: post #3

This guy already said it best: http://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-tha...

Thanks for linking to the original.

There's some real gems in here from the founder of Syncplicity.

For instance, not having a Mac client meant that the tech press wouldn't touch it. Then, they wouldn't write about it. That's pretty enlightening.

Re: Why Dropbox Succeeded and Syncplicity Didn’t

#6

Post by larrik »

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #4

It's so easy to overlook the benefits of staying obsessively focused. Quickly though, almost in your back, each single bit/feature/line of code added to the mix multiplies with the others, and it's over already.

Non-programmers tend to think that adding a software feature is akin to adding on to a house. Sure, it take some effort and money, but the resulting house is surely better, right? (This isn't always true, of course, but still)

In reality, adding a software feature is often like adding onto a house in the center of it, expanding the rest of the house around it to make room. Suddenly the job looks a lot tougher.

Re: Why Dropbox Succeeded and Syncplicity Didn’t

#8

Post by theBobMcCormick »

Looking at products like Dropbox and Evernote, not to mention everything going on with iPhone/Android apps, I can't help but thing that they provide a bit of a counter to the conventional wisdom that native "fat clients" are dead. The people I know who use Dropbox basically never use the Dropbox website except to sign up and to download the client. The client is the magic, not the website.

It makes me wonder what other services might benefit from native clients....

Re: Why Dropbox Succeeded and Syncplicity Didn’t

#9

Post by VMG »

larrik wrote: post #5
jcromartie wrote: post #3

This guy already said it best: http://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-tha...

Thanks for linking to the original. There's some real gems in here from the founder of Syncplicity. For instance, not having a Mac client meant that the tech press wouldn't touch it. Then, they wouldn't write about it. That's pretty enlightening.

It is a little contradiction to the statement "My philosophy is that they're right if their feature request is right only if it works for 80% of your customers.".

Apparently sometimes a small minority of customers still can make all the difference.

Post reply on HN