The Changing Face of Reviews

We have been publishing our monthly review and commentary product for many, many years. Our publication started out as a print (meaning paper and ink) monthly newsletter associated with a unique computer user group, the PHL HUB PCUG.

In case you aren’t familiar with acronyms, PHLHUBPCUG means the PHL (Philadelphia International Airport) HUB (the airports under their management which included PHL, PNE (Northeast Philadelphia), TTN (Trenton Mercer airport), ACY (Atlantic City International), ILG (Wilmington, DE), ABE (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton), AVP (Wilkes-Barre) and IPT (Williamsport) User Group. That facility structure has changed drastically since then but that’s how we started out back in the early 1990’s. Today their structure is NOTHING like this and most of those facilities are closed.

The change in availability of review products has been even more dramatic. What? Even more? Yep.

Back in the 90’s review software (and to some extent hardware) flowed like wine. What do you want to review? You got it! But then the dot.com bubble burst and things slowed down.

Since then, we’ve had a few minor recoveries in hardware for review based on the new “hot” products. For a while Netbooks were hot, now they’re dead. Tablets remain a mixed market. Other products continue to be hot and cold.

As for software......, sheesh. There is no more software. It’s all apps now. The day of the $1000 software package with dozens of disc/CDs is over. The $0.99 app is the software of today!

What does this mean for our readers? We have changed many, many times over the years. We went from a paper and ink publication to an ePub and we’re ready for the next change. Watch for continued changes as we adapt to the ever changing industry we cover.