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What I find interesting that many think before dropbox the only other option was FTP, while in fact there were other cloud based storage providers with good int
by zerr 7y ago
What I find interesting that many think before dropbox the only other option was FTP, while in fact there were other cloud based storage providers with good integration on the desktop such as virtual disk drive on Windows, even in late 90s. Dropbox won with PR/marketing I believe. Can anyone list what differentiated them compared to exiting solutions, besides marketing?
- FR10 7y agoFrom what I have heard on "How to Draw a Startup" [0] Illustration was vital for Dropbox to differentiate themselves. [0] https://www.howtodrawastartup.show https://www.howtodrawastartup.show
- kristianc 7y agoEase of use, UX, network effects, positioning (the fact that it isn’t called Virtual Hard Disk) https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-and-set-vhdx-or-vhd-windows-10 https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-and-set-vhdx-or-vh... Even if you could get the above working yourself, good luck trying to get someone else to so you can collaborate on a project. Developers often dismiss ‘marketing’ as though it is just a fluffy icon or slick website, but how a product is positioned (in Dropbox case for ease of use and the fact that the project is engineered to ‘feel like a folder’) is absolutely marketing and critical to its success.
- zerr 7y agoI meant there were (and still are?) consumer products with simple installers (next > next) which were integrated on Windows as an extra disk - no need to create it manually. Syncing was just that - drag & drop to that disk/folder.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoIt just worked, I tried most of the other solutions at the time and they were terrible.