Thanks for following this stuff guys. I was delinquent for a while pursuing some other things. I will try to be more regular on it.
The post on Franco's blog on Novedge and my current post might have some redundancy in terms of the strategic message, but I have found that you just have to keep saying something over and over for people to get it. Not you guys our the rest of our current customers, but the market at large.
Matt...thanks for the input and requests for more info on V10 and the future. This is always a little tricky because the miniute I say something it sets an expectation, and things can always change. In any event, there are some cool things planned or V10, and one specifically that should dramatically impact 2D drawing performance.
We have also gotten the message loud and clear that we need to spend more time on core fatures rather than new things. We won't address all the things peopel want in 2D in V10, but I will say that we have this identified as one of our key priorities, that and performance, stability, and so on. The latter being one of the benefits of our transition from Java to .NET.
There is always a delicate balance as we try to expand and amplify our message at the same time that we need to be responsive to the immediate needs of our current customers. I would put forward though that even the hardest core customers using the product in production might find that there is benefit to both elements in the ongoing strategy to achieve a leadership position in the market.
In other words, if we can embrace new users and markets with some of the new things we do, we can grow faster and thereby expend greater resources making the product the best value all around, be it for straight production of 2D manufacturing drawings, or publishing conceptual designs in 3D PDF by engineers in Fortune 500 companies.
In many respects, Alibre is a cause, a movement, as much as it is a product. It's the idea that a small visionary contender can change the market dynamics overall. Even for those who choose to continue to use another product like SolidWorks or Pro/ENGINEER, the continued success and growth of Alibre will undoubtedly change the behavior of the larger entrenched vendors for the better in response to us. So I contend even those who do not use our product can look at us as helping them, and they can in some way also become invested in our success. There I go again...
-Greg
