Computer Shopper Review

**Albacore** · 22 October 2005, 11:30 AM

Hi All,
I subscribe to the UK mag called "Computer Shopper" and in Decembers issue it has a review of all vector drawing programmes. Guess what package comes out the top. Your right "Xara Xtreme", in fact it states that if you own a computer then you should have a copy of this software as a matter of fact. It went on to expound on the quality of the product the ease of use ect. all the things that we know. It also stated that it can't understand why people buy Illustrator as Xtreme beats it hands down or words to that effect.

The only thing as a X1 owner was the selling price for the full product as it was priced at a silly £69. I can not reason why xara.com is selling a full product like this for that price when X1 was sold for nearly 3 times that price. I know that we have gone open source and someone will compile the product and put it out there for nothing but why sell it so low? If it encourages more people to use it fair enough and with the amount of new members in this forum it must be working for last week it was very difficult to keep up with the topics. All and all i still think that this price is to low.

**rpc9943** · 22 October 2005, 02:18 PM

well i dont mind it

still havnet bought it, but man what a deal!

will buy soon

RONC

**StevenWWinters** · 22 October 2005, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by Albacore

All and all i still think that this price is to low.

Well, Xara doesn't have the resources of Adobe or Microsoft, but it also doesn't have the overhead. If they can generate a significant increase in market share, keep their overhead down, keep product development moving, all with a low price, everyone wins (except MS & Adobe)...

**SCync** · 22 October 2005, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by Albacore

All and all i still think that this price is to low.

Never thought I'd hear those words from a Scotsman's mouth!

BTW, it's my home country, so don't bark at me.

**Rocko** · 22 October 2005, 05:08 PM

Hi,

Low price may be good for those who already know Xara but had not got enough motivation to buy it, however, it is not the right way if we want to see Xara on business for a long time, there are a lot of examples:

Borland Quattro: It was the best but never could gain market share with Lotus 1-2-3, not to mention against the Microsoft's “ecological” marketing. Its price was reduced in a desperate movement, the rest is history.

Ulead Photoimpact: In many ways it is better than Photoshop, it is a lot cheaper as well, but neither has gain market share in West. Now, it stops to make marketing against Adobe, the efforts were focused to professionals in Asia and home users in West.

Namo Webeditor: The only serious competitor of Dreamweaver in the world, faster, cheaper, easier to use but unknown. Certainly is the leader in Asia but its price strategy has not been definitive in West. Its conservative management is also a weakness.

I do not know a successful price strategy in the technology industry, even Compaq were bought near to bankruptcy and HP have not been able to deal with it until now.

Xara needs a good marketing strategy focused in users, it is not needed a big budget but use the money in the right place. Take a look to schools, at least locally as Opera does. Professionals as the Graphic Arts segment, where Corel is the leader. I know that this could be a tabu, for the joint venture made in the past but there are not options now. At the time when the the Mac version will be released then you can start to talk about Adobe.

It is also a must an intelligent reseller strategy, again not supported in pricing but in knowledge. Trendmicro is a good reference.

Finally, it is needed a public relationship guru, I had never see something like a press strategy from Xara, its work in the web is good, but it has not been massive. I may suggest to review the strategy of Panda Software, it is now well known, it has good credibility and it is one the expensive in may be the most competitive software business segment.

I think Xara needs to be more creative in marketing before such a desperate movement as pricing an open source.

Sincerely,

Rocko

**Xhris** · 22 October 2005, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Albacore

Hi All,
I subscribe to the UK mag called "Computer Shopper" and in Decembers issue it has a review of all vector drawing programmes. Guess what package comes out the top. Your right "Xara Xtreme", in fact it states that if you own a computer then you should have a copy of this software as a matter of fact. It went on to expound on the quality of the product the ease of use ect. all the things that we know. It also stated that it can't understand why people buy Illustrator as Xtreme beats it hands down or words to that effect.

The only thing as a X1 owner was the selling price for the full product as it was priced at a silly £69. I can not reason why xara.com is selling a full product like this for that price when X1 was sold for nearly 3 times that price. I know that we have gone open source and someone will compile the product and put it out there for nothing but why sell it so low? If it encourages more people to use it fair enough and with the amount of new members in this forum it must be working for last week it was very difficult to keep up with the topics. All and all i still think that this price is to low.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/...ring=xara+xara

**w00dy** · 22 October 2005, 06:14 PM

I'd have to agree with Rocko about Namo, you certainly get a lot for your money, WebEditor 2006 is just out, great value... just like Xtreme. I've raised the point about education sector before. I honestly don't know a school that I come into contact with that uses Xara but roll the clock back fifteen years or so and Impression and Artworks were the de facto standard on the Acorn platform... and that was most schools. In a way I suppose it's the VHS/Betamax story all over again, the one with the biggest user base wins, Acorn fell by the wayside and the rest is history!

The majority of UK schools don't have the Adobe suite but a site licence for around £2K isn't bad, still more than enough to make most head teachers baulk though. They only too often tend to think a box with the latest incarnation of M$ Office is all that's needed.

In secondary education, Xtreme can more than meet the needs of most students, just XPE really would be a real boon... far quicker and easier than Serif PP... and that is one company that does know how to market to the education sector... if a teacher simply gives them a call, their whole range is delivered to school within a week!

So where does it leave Xara, it is a brilliant product, you cannot deny that but I really do believe that they need to do something about the grass roots and look to getting kids on board... after all it is easier to use than M$, Adobe et al but it's no use if they can't get their hands on it. The Open Source initiative is to be applauded but why not go the whole hog and give Windows version site licences to the schools... the kids love it, they go home and they get their parents to buy it... and guess what, they might just because it is affordable unlike Adobe. Only Charles will know what proportion of Xara's income is derived from education, I can't think that it is a substantial amount, I may be wrong but it's worth a go.

**gwpriester** · 22 October 2005, 07:36 PM

My guess with the low price is to attract more users and to expand the installed user base. Xara has very good "word of mouth" advertising and so the more users using the product, the more word of mouth advertising.

Gary

**John Rayner** · 22 October 2005, 10:09 PM

Gary...

You need to see if you can set up a challenge on some nerd tv channel... Between you and some illustrator junkie, and a PS guru... The host selects an object at random... A pen a camera, a car... and you would deliver the product before the other 2 where even booted up... Now there is a thought...

How are you in public? Could you do the TV marketing circuit?

Or better yet... get the babe with the "voice" to do it... If she looks 1/10th as hot as she sounds... Sales would skyrocket...

**Rocko** · 23 October 2005, 12:48 AM

Hi again,

After writing my post I realized I did not tough about the most important thing: the money in software business comes from enterprise. It may sound obvious but I do not remember an strategy from Xara in such field.

One example are bundles, When was the last time you saw Xara's products within CD of printers or scanners?. Bundles are good in two ways, first, the hardware producer pays the licenses (Enterprise money), second, the end user knows the SW.

Others are the solutions by size or business segments (Enterprice money). Adobe, Microsoft, Computer Associates, etc. all of them have it, I beg your pardon for my ignorance but I had never saw a Xara's campaign taking care of it, please do not misunderstand me, I mean really solutions, not just volume discounts, having in mind that it is only a marketing approach, I am not telling to make different products, but packages for a business type or custom features for big clients.

Even in Opensource the success comes from Enterprise Money, as companies paying the services for deploying the product. The product is free, but it needs someone interested in making it work for Enterprises.

Xara appears not concerned about this truth. I feel from the company an approach to end user from an end user mind, it is not wrong, in fact, it is the best of Europe's companies, the attention for real clients (I may exclude France), very different that America, where the stock holders rules. But, sometimes is good to remember that Enterprises are clients too.

That is all for now.

Rocko