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14/03/2002 Interview with Arthur Asloyan- President of MegaSoft2000.
First of all, which PDA do you currently use and why?
This is an interesting question. The fact is that my personal lifestyle does not permit me to use all of the kinds of PDAs I would like to use. All day long I use these devices only to test our applications and to examine all the new developments that appear every single day. That means that I just treat them as a tool, that's why I love them all
When was MegaSoft founded and how many people work within the company?
The Megasoft2000 Company was founded in January 2000. It explains the appearance of 2000 in the name of the company The total number of people working in the company is 10, featuring 5 developers and a designer.
You were one of the first software developers to introduce good quality products that took advantage of the Clie's advanced features- why was that?
Frankly speaking I am quite surprised to hear that. I had a feeling that we were a bit late to begin our programs adaptation for the Sony devices. The reason for that is more than banal: it takes quite a long time to get these devices That is why we have to work in direct contact with our active beta testers. We are actively adapting the most interesting programs of ours to 320x320 resolution at the moment. I think this will take us 1-2 months and after that we are going to start the second phase: adaptation for "Super Hi-Res" (c) (320x480).
Which MegaSoft program are you the most proud of and why? How long did it take to develop and program from start to finish?
It is difficult for me to give an answer to this question because every program is like our loving child and every time a new program is born this event differs from the previous one :-) There are applications that I like more than the others but unfortunately we are a commercial company and we create applications, which will gain profits. Anyway our three basic programs are Billiards, MegaLauncher and FastCPU. The program creation cycle can depend on many factors. For example the majority of our programs were developed in a month. However programs such as Billiards are being improved for 2.5 years already. It is complicated for me to remember how many versions this particular game has had but we are sure that a game in this kind of category can be improved again and again.
Which of your programs has been the most successful commercially? Why do think it was so popular?
There is no doubt that the programs we are really proud of are automatically the most successful in terms of commerce. These programs are MegaLauncher, Billiards andFastCPU. The reason these programs are successful is obvious. For more than 2 years we have been studying all of our customers comments and developing them in order to obtain more pleasant and comfortable usage.
What is you favourite non-MegaSoft PDA program and why?
The fact is that I don't have a favourite program. Any program will have its good and bad points. I can use one program today but it will be a totally different program tomorrow. That is why I don't have time to fall in love with any of them...
Can we look forward to an upgraded MegaLauncher and Billiards hi-res in the near future (are you able to say when)?
You hit the nail on the head. We are creating new versions of MegaLauncher and Billiards at the moment. The new versions of these programs will be available in April. I hope that the majority of new and our registered customers will fully enjoy all of the surprises which we are preparing for them.
Do you have 'new' programs in development? Can you give us a hint as to what we may expect?
Yes, of course, our working process includes modernisation of old programs and developing new ones. We wanted to create our version of Chess a long time ago but the development of the new versions of Billiards took practically all of our working time. Never the less almost 70% of this popular game has been created by us. I think we will present this game in the end of spring. Also we are developing a program, which enables to work with data base, personal contacts and others but this is another topic for discussion.
You are well known as a company that puts a lot of time into testing your products before release- do you think this has paid off?
I don't think so. In fact we spend very little time on testing our products, especially lately. Of course we don't have the right to release a program, which contains major mistakes, however we admit to some minor faults. In any case with the help of the thousands of our customers we can eliminate our mistakes within 1-2 days. Otherwise we have to test the program for several months and there aren't any guarantees that we will disclose all of the mistakes. I consider this method of getting the high-quality product in a short time to be the most successful.
Have you been successful with your ambitions for MegaSoft and are you confident we will see developments from yourselves for a long time to come?
A satisfied team of developers immediately stops. The most important thing is not to stop and not to apprize your products. The less we like our products the more perfect they will become, as a higher amount of criticism helps to feel, see and eliminate all the weak points.
If you want more information on the games and applications talked about here please visit MegaSoft2000. Many thanks to Arthur for taking the time to answer my questions.