TLDR: My Main Worries
1. The things that make Anytype unique will be able to be copied/integrated by other bigger companies.
2. Anytype will not have the resources/speed to keep up with contemporary features needed to compete in the market.
3. I think Anytype has the highest potential of any app I’ve seen… but potential isn’t reality. I’m worried the reality of other apps will continuously outpace the reality of Anytype, even if Anytype has more potential. And I’m worried the gap between potential and reality will only widen with time.
I’d love to hear the team’s and community’s thoughts on whether or not you think Anytype will really be able to compete with other apps over time.
I want to start by saying that I truly appreciate all the hard work that the Anytype team has put into all the updates, and that the app keeps getting better and better. I also understand that what Anytype is trying to accomplish is unique, and is actually very hard to do, and takes time.
With that said, I worry about Anytype being able to compete in the broader note taking and productivity space. What will give Anytype an advantage against competitors that have more money to innovate and move faster?
It’s taken Anytype 3 years to reach Beta. What’s keeping another company from integrating some of the unique features that Antype has into their apps? What if Microsoft decided to put hundreds of millions of dollars into making Loop the best possible app with the best features? Or if Google got in the game? Both Microsoft and Google already have the resources and comprehensive software packages that they would have a great ecosystem.
Even beyond those big two, what if Notion decided it was finally worth it to make local storage possible and threw 10s of millions of dollars and hundreds of people at the problem to make the change in a few months? Or what about the smaller players? Mem ai has 10s of millions in investments. There are many productivity alternatives… the big ones like Evernote or Notion, and smaller ones like Capacity, Loseq, Mem, Obsidian, Coda… and I’m consistently surprised by how fast those apps and new ones have made progress when I thought they’d be slower.
Simply put, I have two main worries.
- The things that make Anytype unique will be able to be copied/integrated by other bigger companies.
- Anytype will not have the resources/speed to keep up with contemporary features needed to compete in the market.
Anytype has done a lot. Again, congrats to the team for their amazing work. But is it going to be enough? They are going to be spending the next year or two just trying to get a stable public product. What might Notion (as an example) be able to accomplish in that time? Being able to integrate AI tools might become super crucial to consumer’s work and lives, and this may highlight the need for a company to have a up to date product.
The companies that are already ahead may pull even further ahead, and it may be that only big companies with enough money might be able to get into the game, leaving the little guys with no room.
My theory is that the apps/companies which have the most marketshare will eventually have the best products. They will have the money/resources/speed to outcompete everyone else in terms of actually usefulness and usability. And the only way a newcomer will succeed is if they make something new, and they get part of the market fast.
It’s kind of like the car market. It’s hard to make a good car unless your company already has a lot of the marketshare. You’re either a big player already, or you have to have make a new car and blitz the market. It’s not enough to just have a good car, you have to move fast. Tesla had a new kind of car (they weren’t the first, but their’s was good and they moved fast). Now Tesla is a big player in the car market, and who can compete? For the most part, only the players who were already big players, like Ford, GM, etc.
What if Notion is like Tesla? They made something good that was new fast. And now who will be able to compete? Only the big guys… Microsoft, Google, or newcomers who move fast with lots of money to try to blitz a part of the market.
Does Anytype have what it takes to move fast enough? I really want Anytype to succeed. I think their philosophy and team is best I’ve seen. I think Anytype has the highest potential of any app I’ve seen… but potential isn’t reality. I’m worried the reality of other apps will continuously outpace the reality of Anytype, even if Anytype has more potential. And I’m worried the gap between potential and reality will only widen with time.
These kind of apps are not easy or quick to pick up. They’re super powerful and require lots of personalization. I don’t think the average user, including myself, is going to want to put in the effort to learn or utilize multiple apps. I’m going to want to pick the best one, whether that’s notion, mem, obsidian, or anytype.
For me, I want to use Anytype, but Notion is better in reality. And broadly speaking, how will anytype survive if it’s continuously a few years behind the best competition?
By the time Anytype is fully functioning, able to store locally and sync with other devices, work with multi-spaces and teams… who’s to say another app hasn’t already integrated everything that made Anytype unique? And who’s to say in that time another app hasn’t innovated in an even better way, or created even more useful features (whether that’s AI or something else)?
I really think the values that the Anytype team and app have are a necessity in this world, and even more so for the world we’re moving towards. But just because it’s needed, doesn’t mean it will necessarily succeed.
I realize this turned into a long post, but I would love to hear other people’s thoughts.
To the Anytype team, I politely and respectfully throw down the gauntlet. Move faster, don’t get left behind, make a splash in the market share, make your potential a reality, bet and dream bigger, don’t compromise, become irresistible. And thank you for all you do.
soon.
Even if they do, I’d rather not use it because they have enough of my information already.
. And while there are a number of features I would like to be core to the app, I realize that when the API becomes available, it will change the type of development that is possible exponentially, and that those features could become a reality.