37Signals, the poster child of consumer facing software as a service, is making another move that’s sure to please their customers and demonstrate again the advantages of hosted services over desktop-bound software. The popular personal productivity tool Backpack is now offering an online calendar with all paid Backpack plans. The the calendar page was just linked to the Upgrade page and blogger Rex Hamock, the author of the recent MyBusiness article about 37Signals founder Jason Fried, wrote tonight that the calendar feature is on its way.
The Backpack calendar looks a lot like Google Calendar (our review) and includes iCal synching and natural language input but SMS alerts as well.
Just days ago 37Signals officially embraced outside developers CellTell and their service that sends phone messages to your Backpack account.
When we wrote a few weeks ago about ActiveCollab, a free and open source competitor to 37Signals’ flagship enterprise offering Basecamp, debate was fierce over hosted software as a service vs. software downloads to be placed on your own server. Many people contended that the nominal cost of paying a hosted service for maintenance was more than worth it. [Note: Even ActiveCollab announced yesterday a one-click hosting option with DreamHost.]
Now the addition of one new major feature and one cool supported feature to a 37Signals product is a tangible example of the other primary advantage of software as a service - your system got upgraded and you didn’t even know it was happening. Even the next version of Internet Explorer will be delivered by automatic update, it was announced today.
Whether or not you’re a cynic about user generated content, tagging or ajax - it’s becoming increasingly clear that the web service centric part of the Web 2.0 equation is a keeper.
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Automatic upgrades are *not* good if you don’t want them. If you’re working in a larger corporation, upgrades are generally tested and deployed by your IT department. They make sure that everything runs smooth. What if the new version has a bug which renders you incapable of doing your work? What about re-training for new features?
And what if the new features are bad for you? What if they actually took features away, for example due to a patent problem?
The very reason lots of corporations - large and small - don’t want to use these solutions is because of updates like this one.
LKM, there I go being breathless again - your comment makes sense. I do think though that this update is a good example of something no one is forced to use - it’s just all of a sudden available because of the hosted nature of the service. Obviously there are good and bad ways to make sure an upgrade available.
The calendar feature on Backpack was a much anticipated feature… So is the task feature on Google Calendar.
Knowing that the later will be reserved to paid plans is the definitive argument for me… I’m actually kind of dissapointed… Are they going to get more clients because of this or are they going to loose potential clients because people are going to start looking for alternatives?
This whole business concept is a little inconsistent, I think…
” Even the next version of Internet Explorer will be delivered by automatic update, it was announced today.” - Ummm.. that’s kind of the opposite of software as a service - that’s the exact thing that SAS gets around. Have you got any idea what a big deal it is to do “automatic” roleouts of client software?
“Whether or not you’re a cynic about user generated content, tagging or ajax - it’s becoming increasingly clear that the web service centric part of the Web 2.0 equation is a keeper.” - how does that fit in with the rest of the story?
“Just days ago 37Signals officially embraced outside developers CellTell and their service that sends phone messages to your Backpack account.” - That to me is a much bigger story than a Calendar - it is actually something new. It’s not as big a story as the LiveJournal & Gizmo (http://blog.voipally.com/2006/07/27/livejournal-to-integrate-gizmo-im-voice/) hookup that Om covered at the same time, though.
A note about LKM’s comment: hosted and non-hosted options cater to different business models. 37Signals focuses on small businesses that can handle upgrades without retraining. It may not be good for big businesses, but that’s not in their business model.
I felt really sad to find 37signals in the hands of Amazon Jeff. It is because of the need for a VC capital for a profit making 37signals.
I thought web services with cleanliness and simplicity in mind can not go too far, beyond the geeks. Look at salesforce.com as a comparison. They are going places as they looked at corporate market.
Fortune 500 V/S Fortune 5 million (joson’s term) battle is won by Fortune 500.
It also highlights web 2.0 problem that tanked (sort of) delicious and flickr. They did not go beyond a small number of (geeks?) subscribers. 300,000 was the number sited by Om Malik when delicious went in the hands of yahoo.
Note: Even ActiveCollab announced yesterday a one-click hosting option with DreamHost.
You really can’t draw any parallels between a “one click” installer at a web host and a traditional hosted service. All this installer provides is a little help installing the application; you still need your own hosting account, you’re still installing the software yourself, you’re still responsible for upgrades and the like (although there may be a “one click” upgrader available in the future), and most importantly in this debate, you’re still on your own if something breaks.
James Weirick wrote:
“37Signals focuses on small businesses that can handle upgrades without retraining.”
I know of several very small companies (from 2 to 20 employees) who will not even consider any solution where they can’t install the application on their own local servers for the reason mentioned: Forced up- or downgrades. There are other problems, of course: dependency on the well-being of another company, storage of their data on another company’s servers, dependency on a working internet connection and more.
Hosted solutions have pros and cons, but you can’t say that small companies don’t care about these problems, and you can’t claim that applications hosted on servers owned by another company only have advantages compared to local applications.
I’m not about to explain their own business to 37Signals. I’m just pointing out that by being a hosted-only solution, you’re effectively making sure that a lot of companies - big and small - will not even consider your application. Maybe that makes sense for 37Signals. Maybe they gain more than they miss out. Still, if possible, you should do both.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
If you review the Backpack user forums, 37S has been promising users a calendar ‘any time now’ for months. They promised that search would be rolled out soon LAST NOVEMBER. Neither has appeared. In retrospect, the calendar hype has seemed a ‘me too’ reaction to Google Calendar. I’m sure they’ll get around to releasing it someday, but I’ve become thoroughly entrenched in Google Calendar by now.
There are more hosted personal wikis rolled out every week, and Backpack is the most expensive given its page caps. The only thing that has me still using it is the reminder system, for which there is no suitable replacement (yet).
37S is wisely directing its efforts toward Basecamp, which has a corporate user base that will continue to pay a premium for excellent service. Personal users will always be driven to free (even ad-based) services such as Google. In the meantime, as a Backpack user I feel like a second-rate 37S customer.
2 things:
1. “I felt really sad to find 37signals in the hands of Amazon Jeff.” — 37signals is not “in the hands of Jeff.” Jeff is a minority investor. He doesn’t control 37signals. That’s not what this deal is about. You can read the announcement on our site if you’d like to find out more about the reasons for the deal.
2. “I’ll believe it when I see it. If you review the Backpack user forums, 37S has been promising users a calendar ‘any time now’ for months.” You’ll see it and believe it today. I’d love to hear what you think.
I am eagerly awaiting the backpackit calendar system and have been and will continue to be a huge fan of 37signals… I think they are doing a fantastic job at pleasing a certain segment of the market… you can’t always be everything to everyone but if you can be something to someone then good for you.
Paulo - I don’t understand the dilemma here. I believe Jason has said that “companies should charge for what costs them money” and I can imagine a *lot* of time and energy was spent producing Backpack Calendar. What’s wrong with charging a few bucks per month for something that took a long time to produce and adds a lot of value to their application?
The top-end Backpack plan costs $14 USD a month. I could probably LOSE $14 a month and not even realize it. That’s how cheap it is, and you get a ton of value for that price.
I like using backpack for it’s flexibility and versatility - I’m always thinking of ways to use it for things beyond a to-do list. But this new feature makes me yawn… it does feel like a Google Calendar “Me Too” feature. I don’t see anything that differentiates it, and certainly nothing compelling enough to cause me to switch.
I think that Paulo makes a good point about losing customers by leaving the Calendar out of the free version. So does Mike, about the value that the paid plans represent.
I am also similar to Mike in that I could lose $14/month and not notice. But I think my wife would notice…
So I don’t think I’ll be making much use of Backpack, given that free is my price point, and I see a calendar as fundamental to any personal organization tool.
the gcal ui feels pretty clunky in comparison… i really like the simplicity of the design here.
I’ve been toying around with the Backpack Calendar since it was just launched (appearantly, within the last 20-30 minutes?).. very satisfied, though, time will be the true test.
I’ve been a gCal user up to this point.. and generally dislike the excess baggage found there. I’m hoping this isn’t *too* minimal.. but it looks like it should serve me well.
The only suggestion I have so far is for whole-day-events (non-time-specific events, that is) that don’t span multiple days to be displayed differently — ideally in the manner that multiple-day all-day events are. Just to give some visual difference.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments about voiceNotes. This service will stay free and can be used with the free version of Backpack. With the introduction of the calendar in backpack, I’m thinking about adding a new add-on.
I would like to add the ability for folks to create a Calendar event in
their new BackPack Calendar using the CellTell call-in number.
They would follow voice prompts and enter their specific date/time using their keypad.
Also at that time they could leave a voiceNote that would
appear in the calendar event.
What do you think? Would you use it? Any other suggestions?
-Ali Daniali,
Founder Celltell.tv
For the past couple feature releases, I’ve received an email from Backpack and others about my password reminder. I never asked for my password as I am quite aware of it.
So, I gave it some thought today. Is it possible that 37 signals is shooting out a password reminder to attract some further attention to their release? I know, they probably aren’t.
But an interesting concept as it provides a sense of security as your password was sent to you and not the “person requesting” the password. It also refreshes the stale account to revisit and review. It’s quite possible that upon revisting and noticing a calendar I might be impressed and make it part of my online toolset.
Just thinking… this isn’t a formal accusation.
“Is it possible that 37 signals is shooting out a password reminder to attract some further attention to their release?” — absolutely not.
What’s likely happening is that a web crawler (from a search engine, for example) is going around and clicking on every link on every page on every web site and likely hit your “forgot password” link on your login screen which is emailing your your password. That’s all. Nothing sinister, nothing malicious, just one of many web crawlers trying to do its job.
don’t give these guys your credit card number, and make sure you read their terms of service in whole - i got ripped off when I “upgraded” my free account to a paying account to try out some features - apparently, when you upgrade with these guys, their 30 day satisfaction guarantee doesn’t apply. Be aware.
“apparently, when you upgrade with these guys, their 30 day satisfaction guarantee doesn’t apply.”
We make it very clear that when you upgrade you are going to be charged for your first month. It’s in bold and there’s also a checkbox next to it saying you understand that an upgrade ends your free trial.
In fact, you can’t upgrade your account unless you check that box which is directly next to the clear explanation.
This is the exact wording:
“I understand that upgrading from a free to a paying plan ends my free trial. Once I click the “Upgrade my account” button below I’ll be charged for my first month. I’ll continue to be billed every month until I cancel the service (at which point I won’t be charged again).”
You can use our free products forever — there are no time limits — but when you upgrade your paying subscription begins. The rules are clear and fair and out in the open — it’s free forever until you upgrade to a paying account. Then you pay.
And for the record, we don’t make you sign any long term contracts (you can cancel at any time), we don’t charge a signup fee, and we don’t charge a termination fee. It’s simply month to month. Cancel when you don’t want to use the service anymore and you’ll never be charged again. No questions asked, no phone number to call, no emails to send — just a clink a link and you’re cancelled.
Jason, that is a manipulative business practice, and shatters my confidence about paying for online applications over traditional programs.
And it’s tricky to get an unlicensed version of an online program!
“Jason, that is a manipulative business practice, and shatters my confidence about paying for online applications over traditional programs.”
What is manipulative about being absolutely clear, open, and honest about exactly what happens when you upgrade from a free plan to a paying plan? The terms are right there, you can’t even upgrade unless you check the box saying you understand that you will be charged when you upgrade. It’s all right there, right in front of you, in big type, right above the “upgrade” button. There’s no fine print, no hiding behind a cryptic terms of service legal agreement. It’s in plain english.
“Jason, that is a manipulative business practice, and shatters my confidence about paying for online applications over traditional programs.”
I think you should really be saying that what’s been shattered is your confidence in your own ability to read clearly an application’s terms before sending them your credit card information! You got “ripped” because you didn’t read the print - that isn’t fine or small or inobvious, btw - before handing over your money.
Caveat emptor!
One more thing, You can use the free version for as long as you want. 37signals gives you 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, a year, 2 years… As much time as you need to use the free version. But when you upgrade to a paying plan you PAY for it. You’ve already had your trial.
They’re GIVING you this tool that they’ve worked really really hard on and not asking you FOR A THING. It’s free. But if you want more then you pay for it. That’s how the world works.
I understand frustration with stuff like this, but it’s not 37s fault you didn’t read the rules.
AndrewT: Are you insane? How is explaining clearly what is happening a manipulative business practice?
As for the comments here comparing Backpack to a hosted wiki, this is not a fair comparison. Backpack is not a wiki, although it does have some wiki-like features. Try it out for yourself if you’re not convinced.
I’m excited by the calendar, I think it makes a nice addition.
I don’t know. If you are working in a larger company, upgrades are generally tested and deployed by your IT department.