I searched the archive and couldn’t find this, though I’m sure this has been discussed before.
Here’s the thing: I just recently upgraded to Office 2000 from Office 97 after finding I was having more problems without it than with it. This got me to thinking…how the hell does Microsoft get people to upgrade things like Office to begin with? So at some point, the whole world was using Office 97, then 2000 came out…so what? So some group of businesses and home users actually decided they would go out and blow millions of dollars (collectively) on a newer version of the software that essentially didn’t do anything really new in terms of features. Eventually, enough people have the software that NOT having it becomes a burden, and soon everyone must own it. Then the cycle repeats again when another version comes out.
The reason this seems strange to me is that when the first few people buy it and no one else has it, I would think the pressure would be on THEM to conform to the OLDER version since they are inconveniencing their friends/ business associates with quasi-incompatible documents, etc. with this new version. So how the hell do the sales ever get started? If every business is always trying to save money, I’d think they’d all agree NOT to upgrade and save all that cash…
Disclaimer: Please note that this is NOT meant to be an anti-Microsoft rant. I just want someone to explain the early part of the sales life cycle to me for a product that should logically have trouble selling, but seemingly does not. Is the answer just ‘clever marketing’?