“Autodesk, the design-software specialist that abandoned Apple’s computers for years and then returned to the fold, is taking another unusual step for a maker of high-end business programs–adopting the Mac App Store,” Don Clark reports for The Wall Street Journal.
MacDailyNews Take: What is “unusual” today will be commonplace tomorrow.
“The San Rafael, Calif., company on Tuesday is holding an event to announce new versions of its widely used AutoCAD software that support the new Mac OS X Lion operating system, including two that will be available exclusively from the Apple-run store,” Clark reports. “An $899.99 version called AutoCAD LT 2012 for Mac, for example, is set to be available for download Tuesday from Apple.”
“Among other things, the arrangement puts Autodesk in a position of splitting revenue from its software with a computer maker–an arrangement that is routine with iPhone and iPad apps but is unusual in the PC business. Autodesk is not discussing how much Apple will get, but it ordinarily receives 30% on content sales through its app store,” Clark reports. “‘They are acting an agent for us,’ says Amar Hanspal, Autodesk’s senior vice president for platform solutions and emerging business. ‘They are commercially rewarded for doing that.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Precisely.
Clark reports, “Autodesk has no immediate plans to use the store to distribute the updated full version of its flagship product, which is called AutoCAD 2012 for Mac and retains a hefty list price–$3,995. “There is a price level you cannot exceed” at the online store, Hanspal says… Autodesk’s other Mac offering through the app store is AutoCAD WS for Mac, a simpler free program that is designed to enable users to view and collaborate using AutoCAD files.”
Read more in the full article here.
BOOM! Roasted.
This is incorrect; it is AutoCAD LT for Mac that is coming to the app store — not AutoCAD for Mac.
That’s what it says 🙂
So will it still be allowed to be installed on all of your Macs the same as other App Store purchases? That’d be a huge thing.
Oh great, just in time for Messrs. Norman Foster & Co. to install it on their office-wide Macs to produce the detailed architectural drawings for the Cupertino mothership. Whoosh! We have liftoff.
“the arrangement puts Autodesk in a position of splitting revenue from its software with a computer maker–an arrangement that is routine with iPhone and iPad apps but is unusual in the PC business.”
So, if you buy box software from a store, the store is doing it as a nonprofit?
It’s not the sharing if revenue, that is unusual, but the sharing if revenue with a computer manufacturer.
With the Mac App Store, Apple is creating an income source for themselves that used to go elsewhere.
Now it’s just a matter of time till we get AutoCAD Architecture for the Mac and then I can defenestrate the awful dell workstation I have.
I finally got an iMac here at the office. Just waiting for Civil 3D for Mac so I can scrap the Parallels setup.
Good word! Defenestrate! If the windows would open at Microsoft HQ, then Ballmer might defenestrate some chairs!
Ballmer defenestrated his right nut. I’m all there’s left.
What is awesome is the fact that Autodesk provides full-versions of ALL of their apps free of charge to students who sign up for an account on their website.
You have to give Autodesk credit. Here is a firm that has one of the most spagetti-coded pieces of software on the PC and a company that abandoned the Mac platform for over 15 years.
Then, out of nowhere, they rewrite AutoCAD to run on Macs natively, a very nice program I might add. Now they are releasing LT for the Mac at a significantly lower cost than LT for Windows. Plus, they are using the App Store, which is the way of the future.
I am not sure what got into those Autodeks executives, but I wish some of their thinking would filter over to Microsoft, Intuit, and Adobe.
I guess we’ll have to go to AutoCAD’s website to see what’s missing out of the LT version. It’s about a quarter the price of the full version, so does this mean they pulled out 3/4 of the functionality? I still like SolidWorks, but LOVE the idea of a native Mac app.
Solidworks missed its big chance…
just my $0.02