It's really great to see useful software like this becoming freely available but I do sometimes worry about the effect big players like Google have on niche markets like this. Any company building products in this space are about to feel the squeeze as their potential customers instead pick the free option.
Small products inside of a big company don't have to be independently viable. It seems like the natural conclusion to this setup, whether intentional or not, is that the big companies create monopolies in these niches by pricing out the competition. That's great for the consumer while everything's free and there are still alternatives. I'm not sure how this will play out in the long run though.
Small products inside of a big company don't have to be independently viable. It seems like the natural conclusion to this setup, whether intentional or not, is that the big companies create monopolies in these niches by pricing out the competition. That's great for the consumer while everything's free and there are still alternatives. I'm not sure how this will play out in the long run though.