To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Qt's market share for development tools is so low it rounds down to zero.
When the market is huge, you don't need a high percentage to make a lot of money.
Trolltech's growth has largely come via Qtopia. The C++ frameworks are not growing rapidly and cannot grow rapidly given the pricing model.
Do you have any numbers or are you just trolling? I would guess the latter. Trolltech is not dumb, if they thought they would make more money at a lower pricepoint, they'd lower the pricepoint. They have 11 years of experience in the field for christs sake. I'm guessing you have much less.
Note I am talking paying customers not semi-crippled GPL-edition downloads or some other rubbish.
GPL edition is fully functional. Of course you can only create GPL apps with it. Which is more than fair.
Unless Trolltech takes steps to build out their platform and make it more accessible to more players, it will be left behind and it will wither and die.
Got anything other than bullshit and unsubstantiated claims?
Its ecosystem will not be large enough to support life other than a few small fish. Which is where it is today. There is no substantial Qt ecosystem.
Hmm.. KDE? That's a pretty huge project and there are tons of apps built around it. You'll also see on their list of customers that a bunch of big names have bought licenses. Ever heard of Skype? Adobe Photoshop Album perhaps? Also, mainstream software is a small market compared to custom software. And custom software is ridiculously expensive.. If a company can save on development time they will jump at the chance.
Anyhow, if the company were doing so well they would not have needed all those millions of VC.
Uhh.. That money was to finance expansions into the embedded market, not to bail them out of bankruptcy. Almost every company uses VC money at some point to get into new markets. Not surprising really.
My bet is that Trolltech is still a small company and that 90%+ of their business is focused on mobiles.
I'm sure they won't have explosive growth or anything. They'll probably continue to steadly grow as they have for the past 10 years. Why this is a bad thing is beyond me. As for their core business, your numbers are obviously pure speculation, and I don't have anything better, so its not worth commenting on.
Qt's market share for development tools is so low it rounds down to zero.
When the market is huge, you don't need a high percentage to make a lot of money.
Trolltech is not making a lot of money. If they were making so much money they would not have needed to dilute the company ownership with the additional VC money.
And share is important for longevity. There are very few low market share companies that offer general purpose frameworks that stay around for long.
Trolltech's growth has largely come via Qtopia. The C++ frameworks are not growing rapidly and cannot grow rapidly given the pricing model.
Do you have any numbers or are you just trolling? I would guess the latter. Trolltech is not dumb, if they thought they would make more money at a lower pricepoint, they'd lower the pricepoint. They have 11 years of experience in the field for christs sake. I'm guessing you have much less.
I'm going on the data Trolltech presented to its customers. If you want to make problems with what Trolltech is saying, go ahead and make problems with them.
One of the companies I've worked for in the past owns part of Trolltech. I have a pretty damn good idea of what goes on at Trolltech.
The products I've personally worked on will have been used by more developers than Trolltech will ever have.
By the way, your dumb little personal attacks are the mark of a weak fearful person.
Note I am talking paying customers not semi-crippled GPL-edition downloads or some other rubbish.
GPL edition is fully functional. Of course you can only create GPL apps with it. Which is more than fair.
This is bullshit. The GPL edition of the Windows framework does not include many features and does not include "solutions".
What is not fair is the "screw commercial developers" pricing. I would rather have a pricing schedule based more around the midpoint of the pricing curve, not "screw the commercial developers" and "give away the semi-crippled one for free ... as long as you make GPL apps". That is just plain stupid.
Unless Trolltech takes steps to build out their platform and make it more accessible to more players, it will be left behind and it will wither and die.
Got anything other than bullshit and unsubstantiated claims?
Only the history of software. I suggest you read up on the graveyard of small framework players who have come and gone.
Its ecosystem will not be large enough to support life other than a few small fish. Which is where it is today. There is no substantial Qt ecosystem.
Hmm.. KDE? That's a pretty huge project and there are tons of apps built around it. You'll also see on their list of customers that a bunch of big names have bought licenses. Ever heard of Skype? Adobe Photoshop Album perhaps? Also, mainstream software is a small market compared to custom software. And custom software is ridiculously expensive.. If a company can save on development time they will jump at the chance.
The more successful framework players can list more than two known companies that use their framework. KDE hardly as "apps" unless you consider a motley collection of half-finished crud to be real apps.
Pulling some dipshit argument about "custom software" into the mix only displays the weakness of your argument. So Qt is good enough really only for "custom software" and not "commercial software"??
Anyhow, if the company were doing so well they would not have needed all those millions of VC.
Uhh.. That money was to finance expansions into the embedded market, not to bail them out of bankruptcy. Almost every company uses VC money at some point to get into new markets. Not surprising really.
Again you underscore my points, unknowingly. As I stated, the growth is in embedded/mobile. There is no substantial growth in desktop framework revenue.
My bet is that Trolltech is still a small company and that 90%+ of their business is focused on mobiles.
I'm sure they won't have explosive growth or anything. They'll probably continue to steadly grow as they have for the past 10 years. Why this is a bad thing is beyond me. As for their core business, your numbers are obviously pure speculation, and I don't have anything better, so its not worth commenting on.
You didn't have much anyway, but it didn't keep you from spouting off a bunch of make-believe nonsense.
I hope Trolltech gets wise and lowers prices. Many of Trolltech's problems would be fixed by having more customers and more market share. But I am not going to hold my breath.






Member since:
2005-07-06
Qt's market share for development tools is so low it rounds down to zero.
For 11 years, I would expect something more.
Trolltech's growth has largely come via Qtopia. The C++ frameworks are not growing rapidly and cannot grow rapidly given the pricing model. Note I am talking paying customers not semi-crippled GPL-edition downloads or some other rubbish.
I agree Trolltech's Qt product is exceptional. It is esoteric. Cross-platform is always esoteric. But cross-platform is not a platform. Unless Trolltech takes steps to build out their platform and make it more accessible to more players, it will be left behind and it will wither and die. Its ecosystem will not be large enough to support life other than a few small fish. Which is where it is today. There is no substantial Qt ecosystem.
Anyhow, if the company were doing so well they would not have needed all those millions of VC. We will see in 2-3 years what happens. My bet is that Trolltech is still a small company and that 90%+ of their business is focused on mobiles.