Comparing Download Numbers

  • Article

When I was running the Mindjet Labs, I frequently posted solutions that showed off the power of the MindManager solution platform.  In January 2007, I posted an integration between Mindjet MindManager and OneNote 2007 and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were 100 downloads of the solution in the first 24 hours.  To me, this was very impressive with a user base of 850,000 MindManager users at the time with only a fraction of which who were using OneNote 2007.  This solution took me about a week to develop and really showed a great synergy between OneNote 2007 and MindManager.

Yesterday I posted my first Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget, Radio Stations, a simple pushbutton internet radio station tuner and in the first 24 hours there were more than 1,200 downloads.  The gadget took about a day to develop but it was downloaded 12 times as many times than the OneNote + MindManager integration.  It might be obvious, but here are the factors that I think contribute to exponentially greater downloads of the Vista Sidebar gadget.

  • Number of people who are using Vista compared to the number of people who are using MindManager Pro 6 and OneNote 2007
  • The Sidebar gadget gallery in Vista has a Get more gadgets online link whereas there is no such link in MindManager.
  • The process to download and try a gadget is very easy: you just click on the download link, click through the warnings (after sending them to your attorney for review) and it's intstalled.

This being so, I think that companies like Mindjet should be releasing small solutions like Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets and Windows Live gadgets to be able to "create bite-sized chunks" in order to drive awareness and adoption of their great products.