PBDJ Feature Story

One of the main issues that PowerBuilder and PowerBuilder developers have been facing for the last few years is the lack of mind share for the product. Interest in PowerBuilder - as measured by news articles in Google's archive - ramped up from its inception in 1991 until it hit its peak in 1996 with the release of PowerBuilder 5.0. It dropped a bit off the peak but remained steady until it peaked again in 2003 with the release of PowerBuilder 9.0 and PocketBuilder 1.0. It's been dropping steadily since then though, with the current activity about that of 1993. A look at Google trends also shows the rapid decline in search activity since 2004 (as far back as Trends has data). That is most likely the reason in the last year or so that PowerBuilder keeps dropping off the end of the Tiobe Index.

All that seems to have changed with Sybase's announcement of the beta of PowerBuilder 12.0. Articles on the release appeared in a large number of IT-related news outlets, including Darryl K Taft in eWeek, Sam M Fulton III in BetaNews, David Worthington in Software Development Times, Eric J Bruno in Doctor Dobbs, John K Waters in both Visual Studio Magazine and Application Development Trends and Paul Krill in ComputerWorld, InfoWorld and IT World. There were also articles covering the beta announcement in Application Development & SOA and Database Trends and Applications. If you take another look at the Google Trends data, you'll see the spike in news articles at the far left of the bottom graph. It's the highest amount of news coverage concerning PowerBuilder since the data was collected, with only the release of PowerBuilder 11.5 coming close. Yakov Werde also posted an article on DevX concerning the beta.

As an aside, if you've taken any official Sybase PowerBuilder training classes, particularly at TechWave, you probably know who Yakov is. He was responsible for creating much of the courseware and delivering many of the sessions. If not, you can find out more about him from a previous PBDJ interview with him or his online CV. His new company, eLearnIT, is definitely the place you want to go if you want more training in PowerBuilder or other IT-related items.

Sybase also sponsored a white paper from IDC on the PowerBuilder 12.0 release. I always view a white paper sponsored by the company that makes the product being evaluated with a grain of salt, but the IDC white paper does seem rather "fair and balanced." It notes the high degree of productivity that PowerBuilder facilitates as well as the unusually strong loyalty among the user base. It hints that future versions of PowerBuilder may end up generating MSIL instead of C# and support for Silverlight. It's also realistic, noting that one of the challenges that Sybase faces is executing their plan for PowerBuilder 12 while also ensuring that it is a complete implementation. As they note, PowerBuilder developers are under considerable pressure to move to other development tools. A failure to deliver in a timely manner or the delivery of a non-quite-fully-baked solution will most likely provide a rationale for many shops to move to other toolsets.

The white paper also refers to another challenge related to the subject of this editorial. They indicate that there is a perception problem with the product that limits its ability to attract new customers. They recommend the "m-word" (marketing) in order to create additional buzz about the new capabilities of the product. I'd have to agree. Press releases and favorable articles create some buzz, but additional action is necessary if Sybase wants to do something with PowerBuilder other than stem the flow of existing customers moving away from it. Further, doing the kind of promotion that brings in new customers will also help regain the mind share that will further bolster the efforts of existing customers who are wondering if they shouldn't move on. As I've noted in previous editorials, PowerBuilder seems to be the development communities best kept secret, and the main reason that many shops consider moving away from it isn't a problem with the product, it's a problem with finding people who know how to use it. Making the product attractive to new developers by promoting it so that they know about it will go a long way to addressing the needs of both new and existing customers.