Not necessarily. The iPhone, for example, probably had very few users prior to launching. (though the handful of users that it did have, such as Steve Jobs, probably provided a lot of critical feedback)
That's a valid point. Then again, the 3G iphone has push email and exchange support, which looks to be an improvement that came directly from user feedback.
There's got to be some sort of quality of user/user feedback/time launched algorithm in there someplace. :-)
I like this. It unifies big complex projects and light webapps. In the early days, Flickr was famous for iterating in minutes, based on feedback in their user forums.
Perhaps the real advantage webapp authors have is their ability to iterate. It certainly isn't anything else about the web platform!
Yes, I agree. Ship early and ship often, but understand that it probably won't be "good" for some time. Back when Microsoft shipped, the joke was that it took 3 versions to get any good at all (Windows being the perfect example).
Those that do versioned the first version of Windows NT "3.1", to give the very impression the grandparent mentioned: that it had been through three major releases (and a service pack) already, making it pretty darn good. Whether or not the experience felt like a 3.1 is left as a question for the user.
Is all really great software born in an environment where it was protected from competition? Caveat , I am not drawing a causal relation, nor am I claiming that competition doesn't produce merely good software. But a sort of 'happy childhood' may be necessary (although not sufficient) for great software.
Just look at the examples... Google, three years in academia when business considered search a cost rather than an asset. Gmail, again a long incubation. All the great open source projects are like this too.
This seems to work best when the authors have little competitive pressure, but somehow are able and willing to use that idyll to learn a lot about the problem and the users.
The UAE and most other countries in the ME block websites and give this message when you try to visit them:
"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates."
Twitter, Flickr are blocked as well. Generally the Internet in this neck of the woods is heavily policed.
Is circumventing the restrictions in the UAE something that can get you arrested by the internet police? I know that in China it can, in theory, if you're Chinese, but mostly they are looking for people spreading subversion rather than reading about subversion. I've heard in the Middle East it is more economic restriction than cultural restriction -- VoIP services are blocked so you have to use the phone company's long distance services.
What's to stop you from running Tor all the time, or proxying through your VPS or someone else's VPS? (though I guess it would be annoying to have your connection always slowed down by tunneling it around the world) I used to have a webproxy running on my VPS, let me know if you want me to start it up again. And the google keyword "start using cgiproxy" is good if you're in a pinch.
When it comes to VOIP its more economic than cultural, not so for other services/websites. Speed/latency is the biggest challenge. That's really nice of you, thanks, I will let you know if I need it. Interestingly, the first 3-4 links for "start using cgiproxy" are blocked as well :-(
The time equation comes from processing feedback loops, but the more users, the better the loops, the better the feedback, the better the product.
Given that, it seems to be that it takes 2-3 years to acquire enough users (and the resulting feedback) to make a good product.