Comments on: Kohive launches premium services – is anyone using the free ones?

By: David Gildeh

David Gildeh — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:59:30 +0000

This isn’t the first “desktop” collaboration app out there, there’s been loads of them! StartForce.com is one I’ve followed for years and spoken with the CEO a few times, really slick interface and product, but trouble is after a while the novelty wears off and as JT hinted – why do I want another desktop on top of my already very crowded desktop?! If this concept really had traction, StartForce after 4-5 years would have it, but as the CEO told me, it’s hard and businesses don’t really get it! If this concept ever picks up its going to be in the thin-client desktop arena, where literally the user’s OS is only a web browser and the AJAX desktop is the first thing that loads.

At SambaStream we also went for a “slick” rich interface for our collaboration platform SambaJAM (in fact we use the Google Web Toolkit version of the UI libraries Kohive is using), but decided to make it look more like a desktop application that sits on the user’s existing desktop alongside other desktop applications as this is what makes the most sense to end users who are used to multi-tasking between windows on their desktop, not windows inside another window on their desktop!

Perhaps Kohive can look into Google Chrome OS and how to enable businesses to strip away real costs and issues with managing thick-client PCs! I have a million ideas about this space, especially in the enterprise arena, and always happy to share them

By: Colin Tan

Colin Tan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:13:56 +0000

Good idea to go premium, since Kohive would appeal to project managers.

When you have a market that knows what it wants and needs, you have a market willing to pay for your product if it’s slick enough for the job — and by the look of it, it is… Love the Flickr import!

By: Chris Beach

Chris Beach — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:36:33 +0000

I agree to an extent with JT’s comment about another layer of desktop metaphor being somewhat redundant. However, I rather like Kohive. It combines the familiarity of the desktop paradigm with collaborative aspects that have been implemented neatly and uniformly across the site’s apps.

Twitter launched into a crowded world of social offerings without an obvious target market. Those who said there was no demand for Twitter are now eating their words. Be mindful of this before writing off Kohive.

By: JT

JT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:49:41 +0000

Just because it is decently executed doesn’t mean there is a demand, let alone a market.

I already have a desktop and I have plenty of options for sharing. Another layer of desktop metaphor is useless. Thanks very much.

I’m sure they are nice, but this should never have left the ‘proof of concept’ stage.