Perceived value

Oh, I've programmed Fitaly several times, in various onscreen keyboard design tools - it tends not to work because I reach a speed with the Fitaly layout that the software can't keep up with. QWERTY still has a use :-) And also because sliding isn't there.

I now have the real Windows Fitaly so much optimised with symbol slides that anything else isn't going to be good enough for me.

Don't underestimate the programming that has gone into Fitaly. But a lot of it could be duplicated. Really you're paying for the design itself, which is excellent. You just have to learn the layout and I think that's a barrier to people taking it up - it feels awkward the first time they try it.

I think there is a prejudice that software price should be commensurate with the price AND the size/weight of the hardware - and the sivze of the download. This affected Palm product pricing; many Windows program files are bloated - unavoidably - so a clever little utility for Palm has trouble even raising $5. Whereas Microsoft SQL Server, which we install in colossal rack units, costs like a car...

A way around that perhaps is to put even more functions into Fitaly - application launcher, performance monitor? The title strip isn't doing any work... Of course that would be an act of faith from Textware. I think tools that don't use too much screen space are good, and Fitaly does have an edge there if functions are added - you have to look at it closely anyway, so gadgets added on could be small.

A certain amount could be done (certainly the launcher) with a separate scripting product such as AutoHotkey, but it seems to me that separate accessories don't improve the /image/ of a product. Features have to be /integrated/.

That also means, I think, that to sell programmable slides fully, you really need a slide editor, and /that's/ a whole separate project without proven payoff. Well... I'm proud of my own work in a spreadsheet for this, but it doesn't look professional... yet.

In any case, it evidently isn't worth Textware even setting up to sell this Windows Fitaly for $25... yet.

I've started evangelising, by the way - see link.