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Special Mac REPORT: Diehl Graphsoft explains merger with Nemetschek
An Architosh Exclusive Report on the number one Macintosh CAD vendor's recent merger.
Part 4: Will it Affect the Macintosh CAD Market? To the general Macintosh market, including technical and graphic professionals, what goes on in the CAD market often seems like none of their business -- after all, they don't primarily use CAD programs, and when they do need them they like to pay less than $500 to get them (hence, the importance and growing strength of tools like CADtools by HotDoor, a CAD plugin for Adobe Illustrator.
However, the general and design Mac market should care deeply about what goes on in the Mac CAD market. Here are just a few reasons. For starters, Mac AEC pros use and have many of the staples of the graphics professional. I don't know of any architecture firm or architect that doesn't own Adobe Photoshop. In fact, I know few that don't own at least two Adobe graphic apps. And many own Quark, InDesign and quite a lot own PageMaker as well -- not to mention many other graphic programs common to Mac creative pros such as web apps, painting apps, specialized filters and 3D tools. And here is why this group matters: there are over 50,000 architects in the US alone and more than 30,000 architecture students. And this isn't counting other countries such as Japan, Australia, the UK, Germany and the rest of Europe -- which easily triples this number.
Now what would happen if there were no Macintosh architects and other AEC professionals and students? I'll tell you. There would be a significant drop in the purchases of Mac graphic apps and a corresponding rise for Windows with these same programs. Rest assured, the AEC industry is a vital segment of the graphics and publishing software market and a growing segment of the Web applications and publishing market. These are the same markets that form one half of the core of the Macintosh users-base. Will the merger by Good for the Mac or Bad for the Mac? Nobody in the Mac CAD market would even attempt to think that this merger with Nemetschek AG spells doom for VectorWorks on the Mac. Why? Because the Macintosh and VectorWorks matter in the overall computer and CAD market picture. This isn't just fairy dust I'm sprinkling around in this article to convince you from thinking otherwise. This is actually true. Take Japan as a recent example. If you have been following the computer news lately you would know that Apple is doing super great in Japan, capturing above 20% of the market (in monthly sales of units). And if you read this site or Diehl Graphsoft's you know that VectorWorks has been ranked a number one CAD product in Japan. Add 1 and 1 together and you've got 2! And Diehl Graphsoft's sales on the Macintosh are really strong, according to their press releases. Diehl Graphsoft can grow their market share on the Windows platform while still growing sales on the Mac; and this is just plain good for both Mac and Windows users. Moreover, Diehl Graphsoft has developed successful cross-platform development methods and has succeeded in choosing wisely their underlying technologies. Apple's QuickTime and Adobe's PostScript are two of those technologies; and they are both healthy market leaders on both platforms. It is quite possible that technologically the real winner may be Nemetschek in the long run if Mac OS X lives up to Apple's traditions (the positive ones). And the number one reason we have to believe that it will is that since Steve Jobs' return Apple has generated a proven track record, with only a few hiccups along the way. If the Mac market should continue to grow, and grow faster, it behooves Nemetschek to enter it (with ALLPLAN) and having Diehl Graphsoft in the fold makes it easier. If ALLPLAN was eventually developed for Mac OS X as well as Windows 200x and forward, Nemetschek AG and Diehl Graphsoft would truly have a compelling product portfolio when compared to their joint global rivals, Autodesk and Bentley, who do not provide their users hardware freedom. And having hardware and OS freedom matters because more choice is more flexible and businesses are learning that they need to be more limber to compete successfully in a digital economy. I'm willing to stick my neck out a little now and say that down the road a little, this merger might be looking very good for both of these companies, and in particular, users on the Macintosh. Right in and tell me what you think.
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