Brian Berliner’s Brain

In my article about Sharpcast and their recently released SugarSync product, one of my key criticisms was the fact that the service was priced too high. It appears that I was not alone. Sharpcast has cut their prices in half in response. From their Pricing page:

Looking for the Founders’ Circle (50% off) pricing information? As of April 1, 2008, the Founders’ Circle promotional pricing is our new ongoing, everyday low price, as reflected below. We have listened to your feedback and are excited to offer you the best value possible.

Sharpcast apparently rolled out the price cut quietly. I would not have known about it had I not read a review by Walt Mossberg (cross-referenced here) which stated the lower price point. I was sure that Walt had it wrong. But, he did not. The price for the service has dropped.

Good for them.

I think they should continue to listen to their “customers”. Of course, it seems odd that they would not have known that they were too pricey the week before when they launched. Oh well. Better late than never.

The other thing that surprised me from  Walt’s review was that the much-touted SugarSync Mobile client actually doesn’t sync modified documents:

The cellphone versions can only view photos and whatever documents the phones allow, but changes you make on the phones in documents other than photos aren’t synced back to the computers or to the Web site.

In addition, SugarSync can’t synchronize Microsoft Outlook files and it can’t, say, replicate a new calendar entry or contact change across your computers.

I get that it doesn’t handle contacts and calendar information. It just deals with files. But, customers certainly would be interested in having a single “sync” solution for their entire mobile device that works Over The Air. But my guess is that this would be too de-focusing for SugarSync at this time.