In my last post, Using Portal, Part 1, I posed five questions that any potential syncing application might answer. I did so to help define the problems I see in the current market, and how I see Portal fitting in with the current competition. I’ve done that, but I haven’t defined the market itself, I haven’t said explicitly who the target audience is for this application.
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Certainly, as a file/app sync application, Portal will appeal to individuals who own two Macs (individuals like me). I have a PowerBook I take to school every day, plus an iMac at home. Portal would help me keep the two in harmony, making it easier to move back and forth between the two while working on a single project.
While this was the audience that motivated me to submit this idea, in hindsight, there are many other possible uses for Portal:
- College students in groups, working on collaborative projects.
- Small offices that use lots of Macs (small presses, newspapers, design firms, research labs, etc.)
- Classrooms with Macs at each station (some grade schools, high schools, and colleges use Macs in their “computing” classes, and Portal would make managing them a lot easier).
- Families with more than one Mac in the house (so if Mom and Dad have an iMac and the kids have iBooks/MacBooks, everyone can stay in sync).
I’ve noticed that a lot of smaller web design firms or creative design groups have lots of Macs in their offices. For a small company like that, keeping files in sync between the designers might be a necessary hassle, one that Portal could overcome. I’m not proposing that Portal can merge Photoshop files, but it could make sure everyone starts the day with the latest copies of all the important stuff: calendars, address books, To Do lists, company memos, customer files, etc.
Even if all the user’s needs are met by built in syncing features in iCal, Mail, and the rest of Apple’s products, Portal could put a friendly face on all the hassle of setting everything up just right. Just take a look at how Disco is taking the simple idea of disc burning (something OS X already does, to some degree) and making it really full featured (and even fun to use, from the looks of it). I want Portal to look and feel as good as Disco, I want it to be that sort of application: something that makes your life easier, that has a wonderful (and small) interface, something that can take a dull (or even slightly painful) task and make it fun!
