Michael, rarely do I disagree with you, but I think that you are overlooking some very important issues with Visual dBase.
1) There is still a large installed base of dBase users who will want to install. How Large? Well, I will look on the net and see if I can find out. But, all the same, they will get revenue from dBase.
2) Since Visual dBase has same RAD IDE env as C++ BUilder, JBuilder, and Delphi 3, I suspect that a lot of users of these products will buy at least the professional version.
3) Access is really not that great of a db product. 4 users on a lan will bring an Access db to its knees. Much of the popularity is in the fact that it is essentially free.
4) Since every db sw supports everybody elses tables, Borland could lure Access developers witha good dev env, of which they are miles ahead of MS on all counts.
I certainly do not expect VdB to be a flagship Borland product, but it will provide several quarters of good revenue with all of the upgrades, and even afterwards, should provide a nice revenue stream. Remember that it is the sum total of the Borland products that are going to push this company forward. dBase, while a smaller part, is still significant.
Lastly, the only other area we disagreed on was the straight Jan 10's vs Bull Spread. Let's revisit that one Nov 1st. |
