I like jungledisk working as a virtual drive, which makes it easy to use 3rd party backup software — therefore I find the built in backup function a bit redundant and maybe even slightly confusing.

Here’s a list of stuff I personally would love to see in future versions:
— some sort of verify function (checksums or whatever) so I can be sure my data are archived completely
— improved user interface (on a mac Configuration should maybe go where the Preferences menu of each app is usually located — under the name of the app). View debug log and View activity log in separate View menu (or perhaps Window menu). Make the app even more ‘transparent’ and standardized in context of each platform’s design patterns.
— standard Help documentation
— ability to connect to multiple buckets at the same time (I understand I can achieve that now by running multiple jungledisk apps at the same time on different ports, but I think it would be really useful to be able to easily mount several buckets as several virtual drives using the app’s configuration dialog)

I hope this helps and I am looking for succesful future of this great application!
Tom

Also, do not forget that this is not a rocket science software. A larger company, not speaking of Google and the like, would be able to release something like this very quickly and perhaps for free. Perhaps Amazon will do it once, why not. Perhaps there will be a perfect open source version of it. Again, the only chance for Dave is to do a perfect job asap (again, the block-level diffs are a must!) and definitely do not charge more than once.

The problem is if you want to add features that incur operating cost for usage, beyond the Amazon S3 fees paid by the individual. For example, say you add a feature that requires significant computing resources on the Amazon end, on a per-access basis. Your economics won’t work at that point, and you’ve eliminated your ability to change to a different pricing model. Then you are forced to choose from some unpleasant alternatives:

(a) Not roll out the great new feature,
(b) Roll it out as a product separate from Jungle Disk, in which case you lose your branding and user base,
(c) Revoke your lifetime subscription deal to the people who bought it, or
(d) Honor your deal, but lose money on the people who got in at the for-life rate (potentially a lot of money as there will be no disincentive for these people to limit usage)

It seems as though you’re heading for (d), on the assumption that you can grow your way out of any bad economics with the initial users. Perhaps, but it’s risky I think. Personally I’m fine with the model where minor (.x) releases are included, but major (x.) releases require a new license.

Moreover, if your product is 20 dollar for life or free, it is hard for others to compete with you. If you raise prices or introduce payment for upgrades, you will see others outdoing you with similar products.

One danger I see for JungleDisk though is that somebody comes up with block-level differential uploads and downloads. This will be the next breaktrough in S3 applications, I believe, greatly speeding up people’s work and making S3 and JD MUCH more useful. I am afraid if somebody does it before you do, your business will suffer, even if it were free. So, any news about the block-level diffs? Me, I can’t wait for it…

I has always admired the Winzip program - cheap and ubiquitous in its time. It didn’t cost much but it sold a lot. I suspect growing your market should be your first priority, you can revisit pricing then or more likely get an offer for your company.

Good luck - I’ve already paid the $20 - and tell people about your product whenever the opportunity arises.

Frankly I wish I’d thought of it.

When I hear free updates for the life of the company it scares me that the company might not be alive too long. What is your incentive to continue to innovate once your new subscriptions rate starts to taper off?

What I WOULD pay for, probably more like $30, or the $20 plus some small monthly fee, is a web interface in addition to the WebDAV interface. Being able to access my files online (and better yet, being able to serve them up through a direct url) that would make for a killer app. I could then, for example, get a cheap, low-capacity hosting plan and use S3 for extended file storage, with drag and drop ease of file management.