Ray Kurland interviews Aaron Kelly about DraftSight, and we learn these facts:
- DraftSight division has 24 employees and is expected to generate a profit
- Annual maintenance fee is $250 per user, for those wishing direct support and access to the APIs
- By making DraftSight free, SolidWorks hopes to free up the money spent on 2D (could that be AutoCAD at $4,000?) on 3D (might that be SolidWorks?)
- 40,000 copies downloaded so far
Let's do the math: 24 employees at about $100,000 (employment cost) a year means SolidWorks has to get about 10,000 users on maintenance.
A most puzzling claim by Mr Kelly: "The primary target customers are existing DS customers who have a need to work with 2D and DWG files. This is a need, up until now, we have not had a solution for." What about DWGEditor?
Unlike the DS ceo, Mr Kelly is careful not to say anything that might make Autodesk sweat.
One other question Mr Kurland might have asked, "Why Graebert, and not Bricsys?" I am sure we would have heard a non-answer.
You read the entire interview here: raykurland.com/2010/08/26/aaron-kelly-explains-the-business-model-for-draftsight/
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