Art,

> This is the crux of the problem, isn't it? Like QuickReports, IBX starts
> with the immense advantage of being bundled in the box. Unlike QR or
> FastNet, IBX is perceived as coming "from Borland" and therefore is

presumed

> to be of high quality.

Yes, this is a frustrating point.

> It would be nice if Borland were to include IBO as a 3rd-party

alternative,

> but that ain't gonna happen.

That's for sure.

> It would also be nice if Jason could afford to
> advertise in Delphi Informant (US) or Delphi Magazine (UK) on a regular
> basis, but that ain't gonna happen either.

Actually I do run ads regularly. Especially in DM (UK). It takes up a very
significant part of the revenue that comes in but I do believe I need to do
it. I'll also be in the Power Tools that comes in the Delphi Box.

> IBO suffers from the same problems as IB, only worse. It's a niche

product

> _within_ a niche product. Everything I can think of to improve the
> situation (magazine advertising, snail-mail flyers, bundled on a CD with a
> magazine) costs money.

Mass adverts don't serve niche products well. I've already tapped all that I
think is available to me in this area. If people are aware of newsletter
associated with user groups or whatever, please contact the powers that be
and see if they will do reviews on IBO.

> Well, not quite everything. The community can post "IBO Success Stories"
> parallel to the Case Studies on Carlos Valdez' site. (I apologize in
> advance for the misspelling!) Jason could list "IBO-friendly" products

like

> ReportBuilder Pro and Rubicon on his web site,a nd ask that the products'
> site refer back to ibobjects. When Kylix comes out, perhaps IBO could be
> distributed with the major Linux distributions.

These are some very excellent suggestions!

> Finally, I keep having fantasies of an O'Reilly Book "Using Interbase with
> IBObjects" and an IDG book "IBObjects for Dummies".
>
> Yes, these ideas are lame, but they're a start.

That would be awesome if we got something like that eventually.

Thanks,
Jason Wharton
CPS - Mesa AZ
http://www.ibobjects.com