Are people losing interest in Xara products?

[handrawn]

@Frances - in that case it would have been better in Graphics Chat, which is the place to discuss graphic topics which do not have their own forum [so say it in the blurb] - and not off topic, which is not supposed to be for graphics chat

[handrawn]

because it is about the popularity of xara software and not simply:

a more general discussion of interest in any Xara product in relation to activity on the forums

read the first post again

unless of course the powers that be want to pretend otherwise...

[sorry for double post - clicked wrong button yet again ]

[jon404]

unless of course the powers that be want to pretend otherwise...

Well, what did our President say during the campaign? 'You can't perfume a pig?' Something like that. The problem here is that XDP and P&GD are definitely not pigs, but, even worse, it seems that no-one even knows they exist. And that's before you get into the moving target of younger people running off the cliff with their useless little tablets.

So perhaps it all comes down to marketing, and buzz. Like, I saw Justin Bieber using Xara last week at St.Moritz! Dude! And, are there ANY testimonials from anybody currently working for a Fortune 100 company? Or anybody in Hollywood? Anybody?

[pauland]

the moving target of younger people running off the cliff with their useless little tablets.

What the heck does that mean? I know plenty of not-so-younger people that are very happy with their tablets (and no, I don't mean medicinal ones).


Are there ANY testimonials from anybody currently working for a Fortune 100 company?

Fortune 100 companies, certainly won't be using Xara software, except in some small forgotten enclave.

Xara software is not about corporate use, it's a consumer level product with professional features usable by small design setups.

It is not on an equal footing to the Adobe Creative Suite.

[handrawn]

@Jon

in my experience more young people are interested in art than design, and that means raster not vector by and large

maybe if xara had brushes like serif... but I've been going on about brushes in xara for half a decade or so....

FWIW pigs don't smell bad in their natural environment.. so maybe there is another metaphor there somewhere

@Paul

well I can certainly relate to that because it's a symbol in some circles of the decline of civilisation - the evolutionary progression of mankind from the fish dragging itself out of the water through the various stages, right up to homo sapiens so busy talking on the mobile rather than looking where he's going that he walks straight off the cliff edge...

[but I wouldn't go so far as to say tablets are useless, they're not]


EDIT - and before I get grief - anyone that daft would be a 'he' .....

[jon404]

Before retiring, I got Xara on the 'approved software' list for my workgroup at Qualcomm Corp. in San Diego, California. A large Fortune 100 company... designs the computer chips in your smartphones. We were getting killed by Adobe pricing... even with the discounts you get for corporate purchases. Xara is faster, cheaper, better. Look -- for 99% of in-house work... web, e-learning, and print (we had our own print shops with Kodak and Xerox color digital printers) -- you just don't NEED Photoshop or Illustrator. In-house is NOT an external ad agency. The artwork is NOT complex. But -- ran into resistance from co-workers who feared they would, if laid off in the recession, be less employable if not up-to-date on the latest Adobe products.

Tablets -- how on earth can I make an ad or a brochure or a website on a tablet? For expressing myself, sure. For fine art, you bet. Swipes and gestures to unlock my creative powers? Why not? But then, for $20, I can buy a set of fingerpaint colors and some suitable paper, and get back to 6 years old. When, like EVERY little kid on this planet, I was a truly fine artist!

[steve.ledger]

Windows Surface Pro is a tablet and you will be able to install Xara Designer on it then use your wireless mouse and keyboard.

[stlewis]

Maybe I am one of those people who have disappeared! I use XDP most days but I don't often do anything new with it. Generally it is straightforward stuff - a poster, to crop a jpg, or maybe a diagram. Once in a while I have a 1 or 2 page website where the client really doesn't want something clever or expensive - and then XDP does the job.

I will probably get the upgrade with the new things in it (I presume they will end up in XDP) and I will lurk here a bit until I learn enough - and can chip in to help others.

[pauland]

I think very few large companies would go near Xara. These days companies don't stand in isolation and Adobe (forget the file format) is the exchange medium - for files and ideas. I have worked for a fair few companies and nothing but Adobe software has been used officially, except for other specialised software.

Jon, you sound as though you've found your fortune 100 company to endorse Xara. Go make it happen.

Tablets. There's more to computers than creating complex artwork and tablets aren't replacements for desktops but that makes them far from useless. Don't make your brochure or website on a tablet. Use it for something else (unless of course, you have a windows tablet!).

[handrawn]

just read an interesting article [which I have mislaid link to darn] that makes the point that there are two reasons for PC sales declining - one is the shift in consumer purchases, two is the reliability of modern computers, and the fact [they say] that PC hardware is no longer improving by leaps and bounds, so there is no need to replace it so often, especially given the stability and speed of win7 - and although PC sales have stalled, sales of netbooks, which are essentially mini-PC's are actually increasing ...