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From: glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Ashton-Tate (was: Judge reverses ruling)
Message-ID: <1991May1.175109.1654@welch.jhu.edu>
Date: 1 May 91 17:51:09 GMT
References: <73539@brunix.UUCP> <2333@abcom.ATT.COM> <1991Apr29.204945.6346@dbase.a-t.com>
Reply-To: glenn@welchlab.welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason)
Organization: Welch Medical Library, Baltimore
Lines: 43

In article <1991Apr29.204945.6346@dbase.a-t.com> awd@dbase.a-t.com (Alastair Dallas) writes:
>In article <2333@abcom.ATT.COM>, mdb@abcom.ATT.COM (3030 ) writes:
>> From article <73539@brunix.UUCP>, by pew@cs.brown.edu (Peter E. Wagner):
[ lots of stuff deleted ... ]
>and even though competitors like Paradox and Fox may have extremely
>ardent supporters in netland, let me remind those who are patient
>enough to read on that Ashton-Tate has sold more database management
>systems than anyone in the world.  If you think "that was then,"
>I'll remind you that we own 55% of the PC dbms software market now.
                      ^^^^^^^^^^
That doesn't mean jack shit. You make that statement as if it means
something. It is a fact, but it is indicative of nothing. dBASE was first
to market and it was sometime before any real competition appeared on the
market. I think this has much to do with *why* A-T is the market leader,
but ... I'd be willing to bet that number will drop significantly in the
years ahead. (I wonder how many of those systems sold are sitting on a
shelf somewhere collecting dust?)

>I'm sorry if we're not making everyone happy with us.  I think some
>people gave up on us before change of CEOs, and I think others just

I doubt if many dBASE users gave up on dBASE because of a change in A-T
personnel. The percentage of users who have any knowledge of A-T, its
personnel and its decision making is probably very small. I have a small
one-question quiz for you:

1) Users of a relational database package are most likely to abandon use
   of the product (that they probably spent hundreds of dollar on) and
   purchase and relearn a competitors product to do their work if

	a) the company who markets the product changed CEO,

	b) the user ports code for a living and likes to spend money or

	c) the original product sucks!


Glenn
-- 
Senior Research Programmer Analyst
Laboratory for Applied Research in Academic Information
William H. Welch Medical Library,
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine