I was referring both professionally and personally since little braveries redound in both directions. It is also intrinsically tied to the way in which people respect you, though ultimately it’s not because of that. In other words, to my mind, people who don’t take initiatives in their lives, may be great people, but won’t really affect the world.

On the other hand, I don’t quite understand what you mean when you say that

“people could have frowned upon you not conforming to expected norms of life.”

;. In my experience, in this business, people respond more positively to people taking changes than people playing it safe.

I think.

“It took some large degree of boldness, prompted by my wife, to give up the security of being a top-notch music editor. It meant starting back at the bottom. It meant giving up some financial security.”

One thing I wonder concerns the other point you made: “There are many types of boldness — in your work and in your work life — and both are rewarded.” Are you referring to both professionally as well as personally? If so, do you think this has something to do with the level of respect one has gained? You mentioned you were quite sought after for your abilities. Do you feel if that wasn’t the case people could have frowned upon you not conforming to expected norms of life (no pun intended.) You’re blessed to have an amazing partner in life to actually encourage such a move as well! So many I know would be worried about the security of their marriage.

Thanks again.

Yes I did. I was a project manager and customer liaison for several large music-industry related projects. It gave me a great insight into how the labels/publishing companies ran their business — for good and bad.

Also, the uneasy fit between (for want of a better phrase) old and new media business models.

Norman

Thanks for sending the link along.

http://www.omnigroup.com/blog/entry/ipad_or_bust_mac_app_store_or_bust_too/

Seems like Omni at least plan on continuing to have their own site for trial versions as well.

Thanks for the clarification on the installers. Most large programs of any degree of complexity use installers, don’t they? Doesn’t this rule out a lot of apps, or can programs be relatively easily rewritten to install directly?

Your other points confirm exactly what I’ve thought. There are way too many downsides to this mega-Apple approach to make this valuable.

Can a developer sell both in the store and outside of it?

As a small developer in the outlying 5-10% our current watching brief on the app store runs into these issues:
No demo – demo or trial versions help us sell more and identify needs;
No customer access – developers never know who they’ve sold to and we value that close contact with our customers;
Updates must go through the App store approval process – a week to two weeks turn around for any update, when we often update 2-3 times a week and generally respond to bug reports within 24 hours (with a new version)
Each sale of one license equals five seats for install – it appears the same licensing as for iTunes content sales will apply, so the downloaded app can be installed on up to five seats for the one purchase.

And yes, the push to constantly lower prices will mean that ultimately stuff doesn’t get made because it can’t get a return for professional programmers.

Philip Hodgetts
President, Intelligent Assistance / AssistedEditingcom