Hi there (dear spaceclaim management)
My maximum respect for 'spaceclaim' in the very first place!!
I'm living and make my living (not starving at all :)) in germany and I'm a frequent and very (!) satisfied customer of novedge.
My main application is Rhino 4 (working as a design engineer with rhino (since V1) and a couple of other CAD-systems and beeing a CAD-consultant for midrange and small businesses as well).
A few weeks ago I got interested in 'bunkspeeds HyperShot' and incidentally found novedges offer for 'spaceclaim LTX'.
I took a closer look and had an intense testdrive with the demo which almost instantly made
me into an addict. I desperately WANTED to buy!! (...allways having $ 775 in my mind)
Now - guess what!? There was neither a downloadable version, nor a chance at all to buy an international version of spaceclaim via novedge from germany.
I was amazed and contacted some german and swiss resellers and had to realize, that the german price for spaceclaim was about 1.300 euro (!)...Depending on the exchange-rate for that day and plus 19% VAT (germany) that would have summed up to 2066 US $ compared to 775 US $, if there was a downloadable version available at novedge.... like is for almost every other software they sell.
(OK - I'm selfemployed - so lets forget about the VAT, if I buy in germany)
The other day I finally bought 'HyperShot' ($ 899), a compagnion-product to spaceclaim - OF COURSE as a downloadable version!
(by the way - another amazing story is, that 'HyperShot' is called a Partner/Compagnion-product
on the spaceclaim-website...but when I tried to figure out, if that means, that there either is a
version of spaceclaim pro with hypershot already being built into it available, or if there is only a
built-in plugin in spaceclaim pro, I just could'nt (figure out)...there were two different statements as to that.
One said: HyperShot HD only works with spaceclaim pro, the other was: ..it works with all versions - exept the LT-version.
I would have rather prefered to buy spaceclaim pro with HyperShot HD as a bundle.)
Back to the european pricing of spaceclaim LTX....
For 1800 US $ I can book a two way ticket to NY or Miami, buy spaceclaim, pay the customs, get back and still have some money left. DOES this marketing approach really make sense to anyone?
Call me 'naive' - but I'll keep on wondering, why all the bankers in this world are not even allowed but forced to make money out of exchange rates by buying or selling foreign currencies, while WE (the 'simple' ones) are prosecuted by our tax-administrations and customs for the same idea, when buying products and comparing offers around the globe (SIMPLY BEACAUSE it is possible!). We either have a global market or we don't have it. We either are world-citizens with a global communication or we ain't. Especially for software, there seems no obvious reason for having totally different prices all around the globe.
OR can any 'master of economics' or similar please explain to me, why this would make sense in a 'global village' - I'd badly like to learn about the arguements.
The only reason I could possibly think of is, that european and especially german resellers are not willing to sell low-price-products, because they would argue, that they won't make enough money compared to the IMMENSE ;/ amount of work, that it takes to sell a piece of software on the phone :) That may well be the reason for the fact, that you can't buy 'spaceclaim LT' in germany.
But that was YESTERDAY - make spaceclaim purchasable via download and you will see, that it works. Don't buy into resellers arguements like: "CAD-software has to have a high price in germany - else noone will take it for serious"..its not true!! Rhino, Sketchup-Pro* and Alibre are proving the opposite. And if the market is an estimated 5.000.000 professional CAD-Users around the globe at this time, you will see it explode with the 'spaceclaim' kind of UI/approach very soon, if you do not only keep it simple and fast but also affordable (I'm talking about overall prices below $ 1.000)
*just take a look at the unbelievably high number of sketchup-related entries/tutorials at 'youtube'. What does that tell you?
I'm promoting and selling sketchup-pro (and a bunch of other CAD/Modelling software) and NOONE ever had a problem with 350 € for an 'engine' like that.
The sale usually consumes no extra time at all, since everyone has played around with the freely available public version of 'sketchup' before they decide to buy the 'pro'-version.
Don't forget that Rhino penetrated the market the way it did, because it was easyly available at a very affordable price.
Rhino's clients, as well as Sketchup's clients are in their vast majority INDIVIDUALS...freelancers, small offices...so small budgets mainly ...but budgets.
Spaceclaim is the right idea at the right TIME - but in the meanTIME, TIME is riding very fast theese days, especially in this business.
The big players already offer visions and/or ready solutions (NX, Solidegde, inventor, solidworks (soon), CoCreate) with the very same technology, so no need for the big companies to switch to another very new software with all the inherent risks.
*By the way - I'm not talking about nationalized (language addopted) versions, but about international versions.
Everyone here in germany (who has successfully achieved his drivers-licence and in addition is able to handle his tv-remote controls :) ought be able to operate a system like 'spaceclaim' with ease...
So please - where's the international language version for download and purchase via novedge? :)
I'm absolutely no marketing specialist, but thinking about it and having to do with this business as an
end-user and as a CAD-consultant for almost two decades I strongly believe, that selling i.e. 100.000 licenses in the first year for say $ 775 results in a reasonably strong community having the power to financially support further fast development of the software to have it established, whereas selling i.e. 20.000 licenses for say $ 2.500 ends up in a much smaller community...and when it comes to the next step/upgrade less power for development.
A). 775 $ x 100.000 = 77.500.000 $ compared to i.e. B). 2.500 $ x 20.000 = 50.000.000 $
>>> first upgrade
A). 500 $ x 50.000 = 25.000.000 $ compared to B). 500 $ x 10.000 = 5.000.000 $
I'm not very firm in math's, but my favourite solution was definitly plan A.
You may also call it the McNeel-plan :)
'nough and thx for today :)
klaus middendorf
ps:
division: 'hot rumors' :)
Do you think GOOGLE has allready become aware of 'spaceclaim'?
AT LAST :) (or I should better say - finally) they are the guys who out of the blue bought 'atLast-Software' and made SketchUp even more famous and since someone on the forum found this marvelous comparison and called spaceclaim "
a SketchUp on Steroids" :) (I love that one!) they might get the clou and buy spaceclaim...
or worse for spaceclaim !!! copy the idea and harvest the market with something like a
'
SketchUp Pro-engineering edition'* :) ...Beware of the GOOGLES - powerfull they are!!! .. and never think it was impossible!
(*
especially the PTC-people would like this title - would'nt they?)
SECOND(...last...)LY - did anyone register, what's going on at Dassault Systems? Take a look at 3D-VIA-shape - IT has already begun!
Its the SketchUp approach but it does'nt seem to feature Polygon-modelling any longer and ...look at the UI and the 'Pull-technology'.
Got it?
http://www.3dvia.com/software/3dvia-shape/ ...watch it! Trust me - they will have filleting and chamfering just the way spaceclaim has in the very near future.
Professionals will still know, that there is a big difference, but psychologically this will have a tormendous
effect on the way newcomers look at this 'push-pull-technology'. They just won't appreciate it the way they should...and selling it as an 'advanced technology' becomes a pain because it seems so common and everybody will tell how easy to use (perception = simple) it is.