When you think of software and personal computers (PCs),
you think Microsoft.
The global software giant dominates the PC market in both
penetration and pocketbook.
It seems you can't go a single day without seeing at least
one news story and several advertisements for Microsoft or
a Microsoft product.
But that doesn't mean Microsoft dominates in every corner
of the market; in fact, as the software behemoth gets
bigger, numerous niche software offerings spring up to fill
in the gaps left in Microsoft's wake.
As you'll see, a couple of these niche software programs
have managed to either beat Microsoft to the punch, or even
steal market share away from the seemingly invincible
company.
** FeedDemon **
FeedDemon software ($29.95) enables you to subscribe to and
read RSS Feeds (Real Simple Syndication).
RSS has emerged as the preferred way to share news and
other content with subscribers across the Internet without
the use of email.
The advantage to subscribers: as news, blogs, or other
content updates somewhere online, subscribers receive
virtually instant notification just by opening up their
reader.
This represents a huge time savings since subscribers can
receive updates without surfing individual sites to chase
down stories or wading through piles of spam to find the
content they actually want.
The advantage to publishers: no worrying about whether
email notifications, news releases, or blog updates made it
past the spam filters or unreliable mail servers.
Though many free RSS reader software packages exist (just
do a search on Google.com for "free rss reader"), FeedDemon
offers an unmatched suite of tools that enable serious RSS
subscribers the power and flexibility to mix and match
feeds, including the new "POD Casting" craze where content
providers syndicate audio content (MP3) over the web.
Available from www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/, FeedDemon sets
the standard for RSS readers in a market that Microsoft has
yet to even address with any of its software products.
I'll make a daring prediction here: watch for Microsoft or
another large player to purchase FeedDemon rather than try
to reinvent the wheel and build a product brand themselves.
** FireFox Web Browser **
Security problems always seem to plague the Microsoft
Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser.
In fact, last year the problem got so bad, it forced
Microsoft to release one of the largest free software
upgrades (Service Pack 2) in the history of computing.
According to both OneStat.com and Webside Story, two of the
Web's leading Web analytics companies, Microsoft's IE
market share has dipped below 90%.
See actual stats from WebSide Story Here:
http://www.websidestory.com/services-solutions/datainsights/spotlight.html
In response to serious security threats to Internet
Explorer, an upstart browser named FireFox from Mozilla.org
took off like a rocket ship in late 2004.
Available free from www.Mozilla.org, FireFox offers not
only a full-featured Web browser without the security
problems, but also a number of features not available on
Internet Explorer.
Probably the most popular feature Firefox offers over IE is
"Tabbed Browsing," which enables you to open multiple Web
pages without opening multiple windows.
Firefox also limits harmful Active-X controls and pop-up
windows.
Firefox tends towards a less forgiving attitude on HTML
coding and may display some Web pages awkwardly, where IE
displays most pages as the designer intended.
Despite this, Firefox makes an excellent browser and
Microsoft should take heed that market dominance doesn't
last forever once consumers see a viable alternative.
And the lesson in all of this for all you would-be
entrepreneurs out there with the next great idea?
It doesn't matter how big or small your organization, it
always comes back to a simple formula: Meet the needs and
solve the problems of a specific niche audience better than
the next guy and you'll be the winner!
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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
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