Interview with Charles Moir

[AntonyF]

I was at The Register, reading an article about DDoS mitigation, and did a double take when I saw Charle's photo on the right hand side promoting this article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01...n_anniversary/

[mwenz]

Interesting article. It reveals, somewhat, why Xara isn't a household word among graphic designers.

Magix and "International exposure" seem totally at odds in the last few paragraphs. Magix itself isn't well known in the US (you know, that place that is only about marketing BS). Unfortunately the US was, and remains, the largest market segment for either company's products.

Hoping that Magix will become better at communicating with the world concerning Xara is itself a folly at best. And it is a pity. XDP could become a 2nd place illustration application. Second place? At least over the next decade. Adobe is too entrenched to take much of their market share in the span of ten years. CorelDraw would be easier to unseat and they are currently in the second seat.

I also suspect Serif, which comes up far easier in the US using Google or Bing searches is likely holding third place. (Aside from the Opensource InkScape.)

Speaking of Serif, both companies (Xara and Serif) have opportunities to take market share with Adobe's new licensing model that takes over towards the end of 2012. The time is ripe for promoting alternatives to both Illustrator (XDP) and InDesign (PagePlus).

I believe Xara's XDP needs some fundamental changes in order to move forward in the US (and elsewhere) in order to be taken seriously in design circles even with Adobe's stupid decisions regarding licensing. Like it or not, there is too much product overlap in Xara products to endear itself to designers accustomed to Illustrator and CorelDraw. Web stuff (with some exception here) needs removed. Web stuff related to interactivity in PDFs and eBooks should stay and be enhanced. But a web site creator? Nah. That's what Xara's Web Designer stuff should be for.

I do hope that minds change at Xara and Magix concerning Xara's offerings and how they integrate into the larger whole of print, interactive communication and web work. XDP *is* a great design application that is capable of so much more. And it decidedly deserves a greater market share. XDP currently does have a slight identity crises and that needs refined and strengthened. Then promoted with single-minded purpose.

Take care, Mike

[Big Frank]

interesting article, thanks

[pauland]

Yes, thanks for an interesting read.

[Karateed]

Wonderful article Anthony. I used to own a BBC so I'm familiar with some of his software.....

[Gare]

I have to agree with Mike on several points. Both the Macintosh and Adobe communities have expressed outrage at Adobe's new licensing policy, which is just a logical extension of corporate greed. Which will indeed create an opening, which I really hope Xara can fill.

It's all about marketing, period, forget the false sense of security in the ivy covered walls of pure academia and research. Xara has the goods, now it's time for a successful marketing strategy. Does everyone realize how Illustrator became the #1 vector drawing program? More than 10 years ago, CorelDRAW had almost 90% of the Windows market for vector drawing programs. They stumbled as their CEO had some dirty deal accusations to answer for, and never regained to this day the momentum they had. Adobe, on the other hand, at the same time, saw 54% of their Photoshop revenue coming from Windows, and decided to give a truly anemic Windows Illustrator some serious attention. Since 1996 or so, Illustrator has been basically equivlant on both the Mac and the PC for features, and the company is so serious about the product they recast the code a few years ago to get rid of legacy code crap.

I'd like to see Xara taught in higher education, like Illustrator is, and CorelDRAW isn't these days. That was one monumentally sound move that Adobe wangled: to get courses taught in Illustrator at universities. Because this creates generations of users.

A good place to start with this might be to request a course in Xara at Lynda.com, no? If enough people ask for something, eventually smart merchants get the idea.

My Best,

gary