Interview with Charles Moir

**AntonyF** · 13 January 2012, 12:43 PM

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** · 13 January 2012, 01:49 PM

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** · 13 January 2012, 04:38 PM

interesting article, thanks

**pauland** · 15 January 2012, 12:23 AM

Yes, thanks for an interesting read.

**Karateed** · 15 January 2012, 01:27 AM

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

**Gare** · 16 January 2012, 12:33 PM

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

**pauland** · 16 January 2012, 12:58 PM

Lynda.com is only interested in doing work for technology used by people willing to shell out their subscription fee - essentially professionals and serious amateurs. I don't think that Xara's market penetration would make it something that Lynda.com would see as being of interest to their subscribers.

Xara is seriously flawed for working in the existing professional pipeline dominated by Adobe. Established agencies have no interest in a single software product that does a lot of things well, but none very well. Xara software does great static website creation, but is useless for large sites or serious CMS integration. The drawing capabilities are good but seriously falling behind their competitors (and not just Adobe competitors).

Magix's heart is in the consumer/semi-professional market, not the professional market. They couldn't even capitalise on the notion of bringing Xara to the resurgent Mac market where there is less competition.

You are entirely right about people being less than happy with Adobe these days.

**AntonyF** · 16 January 2012, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by Gare

ting[/B], 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.

I agree. I need to tread a careful line on my comments - I worked at Xara, and of course am still involved a bit (hence TG) and I do that because I like the products and many of the people there. But working in marketing at Xara was frustrating because, well, there wasn't really any when I was there. And Charles' disdain for marketing in the article really explains a lot. But I guess if your first product sells bucketloads by word of mouth alone, the value of marketing must be harder to appreciate. Sadly, products rarely work that way! Particuarly in such a competitive landscape as the PC market.

I think anyone that uses is it hooked - I still use it every day. But there's so much potential to get the word out there and make it bigger. An autocratic company can achieve brilliance yet also be limited.

**handrawn** · 16 January 2012, 07:27 PM

have a look here:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...ble&highlight=

so far [20.22 GMT 16 jan12] no reply - ok that's maybe because it's a known issue - but nobody in the true professional market is going to put up with c**p like this, but the 'consumer' market just might - nuff said

**mwenz** · 16 January 2012, 08:28 PM

Heh heh, haven't spent much time on the Adobe InDesign or PhotoShop forums lately, have we? The number of stupid issues and work-arounds is astounding.

But I do agree. I just came on the forum and saw the other thread and responded. To add to that post because it is more pertinent here, I don't generally copy multiple objects across multiple layers and don't know if I would have ever noticed the issue without that post.

Xara isn't alone in its issues. While I do not experience many of the problems that are recurring issues with InDesign the Adobe forums that show up everyday, I suspect one day I will. At least if I purchase a Mac. Seems many of the recurring issues are ironically related to the Macs.

Take care, Mike