"It takes a certain type of person to get excited about a work productivity tool," they open, and they're right – our guess is that just such a person would probably be defined as "somebody who depends on one."

TechCrunch provides their usual invaluable services, posting a weird little video from Mark Nielsenand Patrick Carmitchel, who describe themselves as "unsatisfied with 37Signals‘ Basecamp," and have "decided to disrupt the productivity software industry."

The video shows Salesforce.com, Basecamp and Zoho (News - Alert) walking the plank and dying watery deaths at the hands of RULE.fm. The tour is live on the RULE.fm  site right now, and the platform itself will go live on Tuesday.

As TechCrunch quotes them saying, “We decided we’d rather not see the light of day for a while than have to live with knowing that with just a little bit of creative, a pinch of logic and a dash of sexy, we could revive the productivity software world with a tool that would even make Apple (News - Alert) cry.”

As is frequently the case, commenters have some of the best things to say: "I’d like to see a productivity tool which isn’t based on time tracking and manually invoicing clients one by one," says Tara. "How about a business productivity suite for non-freelancers? Skip all the billing, and let me define databases to track my KPIs."

Evidently they want to eat 37Signals’ lunch and, according to TechCrunch, which describes the RULE.fm product as "what would happen if Apple got serious about productivity software, with much emphasis on design aesthetics," with a contact list manager, a Yammer -like discussion area, a place for tasks, and a communal file sharing functionality." Nielsen says they'll "eventually expand into wikis, customer retention management and accounting tools."

Not everybody's impressed: "How about something that isn’t blatantly trying to rip off Apples marketing style from 2 years ago (and is somehow MORE infuriatingly “hey look how understated we are”)," writes Simon Taylor. "I want this product to die in a fire."