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by Michael Cote.
Original Post: Intuit Biography Book Review
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In '91, when MS was going to release a Windows version of Money, Intuit went into freak out mode:
"So Intuit preannounced the release of its Windows version in hopes that its customers would be willing to wait for it. To win retailers' loyalty, Intuit included a $15 rebate coupon, redeemable on software customers purchased in their stores, in a direct mailing that announced the Windows version. This was the first time a software company offered a rebate, the authors say.
And once the price for Money became known, Intuit not only set a lower retail price for Quicken, it set a significantly lower price for distributors and offered retailers big discounts for ordering in quantity."
I'd never think of the second prong of that attack: getting retailers on your side by increasing their profit margins.
Customer satisfaction: "the initial release of QuickBooks contained a data-destroying bug, possibly affecting 5 percent to 10 percent of copies sold. The repair required deleting and re-entering hundreds of transactions by hand. Intuit sent out new disks but also told business owners who had the problem to hire temps to re-enter data and send Intuit the bill."
"Cook rejected the name Instinct for his new company, because it sounded too much like 'it stinks.'"