Though I work for Jump Development Group, the opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of Jump Development Group, nor its employees.

Preface

Preface

Preface

What Is All This Crap About? 

I was motivated to publish this web page by my experience at the August 1996 MacWorld Expo. This Expo was my first face to face contact with the public, and I quickly fell out of character and into hard sell as I dragged thousands of people off the floor. I found that every time I told a user about our product, they left excited about what they had discovered. What we offer is unique, and it made me proud. However, the confusion in the user community reminded me that we have a problem.

This experience reminded me that our product, RAM Charger, should be known, and be helping all Mac users. However, Mac users were misled by Connectix and the press, and so RAM Charger is unknown. This web page was my small contribution to help "fix the problem".

I thought that to change the current market situation, we could balance the "public knowledge" scales. To do this, I felt it was necessary to reveal the history that brought RAM Charger to where it was. This would show why RAM Charger was misunderstood, and perhaps open minds to consider the real issues. "They" ignored the issues, perpetuated incorrect information, and even mislead intentionally. I was here to balance the scales with accurate, detailed, information, and open minds to the reality of RAM Charger.

The story is entertaining, but the truth is in the software. It was my intention to get users to download our fully functional demo of RAM Charger, understand it, and tell their friends. That was my purpose in publishing this web page.

However, these days I update it so that I can refer users to it when they ask "why"? "Such a great product" they say. Why don't yo do this, or that, or this...we need RAM Charger!

Well, we made the software the best we could. Then we tried prompting intelligent reviews, purchased expensive advertising in all kinds of magazines, used direct mailings, bundled with other products, tried to establish partenerships with Apple and Connectix, worked with a marketing company, and used Internet marketing. And here we are.

I keep this page up so I can point questioning users here, and semi-resentfully say "we did all that". Is it our fault? Sure, to a fair extent. We should have been better car salesmen (maybe we should be Bill Gates), rather than just technical experts. Why so personal? Because for the last 4 years tecnical development of RAM Charger has been my responsibility.

RAM Doubler, a quickly developed response to OptiMem, is in fact quite different. It is simply an improvement on Apple's Virtual Memory, a claim I have supported extensively on the RAM Charger site (starting here). However, questionable marketing, and weak evaluation by the press, confused the Mac user community. This resulted in RAM Doubler appearing to be a simple alternative to OptiMem, rather than Apple VM.

The questionable marketing, and generally inappropriate press, given RAM Doubler, raised it to superstar status, while ignoring OptiMem. As a direct result, sales for RAM Doubler rose, while OptiMem sales fell. These statistics gave credibility to the false reputations, and further served to fuel the fire.

Now that people are starting to realize RAM Doubler's limitations, they will discover the unique value of [OptiMem] RAM Charger, which System Soft is selling extremely well in Japan. 

It will be interesting to see how the market, and press, react. We have a solid, unique, valuable product for the Mac. We will finally be on the shelves in stores. We will have consistent full page adds in the magazines. Will people finally take a good look at memory enhancement software? Or, will propaganda, and red herrings, still define the product category?

As of April 1997 sales of RAM Charger have still not met expectations. It is my opinion that this is a combination of problems with Syncronys Softcorp's reputation, continued insufficient advertisment, and the difficulty of using RAM Charger. As a result, we have been working very hard on a new version that simplifies use greatly. The new version adds a MenuBar entry with better merory statitic feedback, an "About This Mac" replacement, and simplified settings. 

As of December 1997 revenue from RAM Charger sales has not kept pace with previous years. It is my opinion that this is both Syncronys Softcorp's reputation, and continued insufficient advertisment. Syncronys has continued to persue PC sales, and has not pressed on in the Mac market. This may be the result of the unstable image Apple has provided over the last year.

December 5th, 1997, we shipped RAM Charger 8, an all new PowerPC native version with many enhnacements to the user interface. Sales will be handled directly by Jump Development Group again, and we will attempt to utilize the Internet to market our product. 

January, 1999, Mac OS 8.5 has essentially given RAM Charger the kiss of death (see this page). Over the years we have tried prompting intelligent reviews, purchased expensive advertising in all kinds of magazines, used direct mailings, bundled with other products, tried to establish partenerships with Apple and Connectix, worked with Syncronys (a marketing company that ate all my personal money [SYCR]), and used Internet marketing. As valuable an idea as RAM Charger was, all things come to an end.

May, 1999, Many any users still benefit from RAM Charger, which seems to work well in many configurations, and we continue to sell it to them rather than leave them out in the cold, as talked about here.

Note: Mac OS X (OS 10, for us non-Romans) will provide dynamic memory enhancement for applications, just the way RAM Charger did for OS 7 & 8, and Windows and Unix do for other platforms.

Jump Development Group will keep working. With our lean company structure, we will continue even as the market continues to offer us limited returns. We are starting to work on other prospects. Hopefully, you will have more opportunities to ignore us down the road.

Still going,
Cris Mooney