NewsGator Consumer Products are Now Free
On January 9, 2008, NewsGator announced that it made a big change in its business model. Now, users can get all of NewsGator’s consumer products for free. Those free products include:
- NetNewsWire 3.1
- FeedDemon 2.6
- NewsGator Go! for Windows Mobile 2.0
- NewsGator Inbox 3.0 (beta)
- NewsGator Go! for Blackberry
- All of NewsGators online platform products (iPhone Reader, HTML Reader, etc.)
NewsGator is promoting its free suite of products saying they synchronize perfectly with their online programs for a ‘best-in-breed RSS reading experience’ (and yes, the copywriter in me agrees that is a terrible piece of copy, but I digress).
How is NewsGator going to make up for that lost revenue? Well, they have a new strategy in mind. Their new plan is to start collecting attention data (or activity data) meaning they’re going to keep track of what their users are doing. This is nothing new online, but it is new for NewsGator and their customers. They also think that by offering their consumer products for free, they’ll be able to sell more of their NewsGator Enterprise Servers, but that’s another story entirely.
What do you think of the free NewsGator products? Will you make the switch? Many Google Reader and Bloglines users have a variety of complaints about those feed readers including being slow to update, etc. NewsGator customers are typically very happy with the services not just from FeedDemon but all the programs the company offers.
If you’re already a NewsGator product user, leave a comment and let BloggingTips readers know what you think. What have you found to be the pros and cons of being a NewsGator user?
Shankar Ganesh | January 14th, 2008 at 11:18 pm #
I’m trying out FeedDemon but I think it’ll take some days to get used to.
There are too many GOOD features, you know
Susan Gunelius (Post Author) | January 15th, 2008 at 12:05 am #
Shankar, come back and tell us what you think once you get a chance to delve into all the features. I want to try it, but I don’t think I’ll have time to get into it for a couple more weeks. I used to always be satisfied with the tools I was using, but lately, I’ve been itching to try new things. Now that all the NewsGator products are free, I think FeedDemon has moved near the top of my list of new toys to play with.
Kevin | February 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pm #
NetNewsWire is the best RSS application for the Mac. The ability to sync between my work PC, my home Mac, and my iPhone is fantastic. If you read feeds on multiple devices you should check out the Newsgator products.