Why I may abandon Xara

**Nathan Brazil** · 08 May 2019, 01:31 PM

Alas, I fear that you are probably correct. Xara, built on individual appreciation, headed toward corporate sales. A pity, as the company could do both. It reminds me of Apple, who used to accomplish great things, and now sell phones. (-:

There are some features which Xara products just do better and easier than other apps, and so I expect to continue using those desktop versions I bought. No upgrades required. As for web design, the app I named before, Wolf, is very similar to Xara, and clearly the makers see a gap in the market.

**Rob-Xar** · 08 May 2019, 02:20 PM

Handrawn is correct here. Just to clarify, Xara Cloud is nothing like the desktop products or any products found in the app store. It is very much a separate venture that is aimed at the corporate market. It's Cloud-based so will naturally will have a subscription model.

We're still actively developing our desktop products. Version 16.2 is soon about to be released with more features and bug fixes.

**handrawn** · 08 May 2019, 02:31 PM

Version 16.2 is soon about to be released with more features and bug fixes

thanks for that Rob

**Nathan Brazil** · 08 May 2019, 03:23 PM

So why not develop an IOS based model of Xara web designer? Wolf Web Designer is pretty much there, but obviously cannot open my Xara desktop files. Is it that Xara just does not put any value on Apples App Store and Google Play Apps for Android?

**Rob-Xar** · 08 May 2019, 03:32 PM

I don't know personally, I can only assume it was deemed not to be as profitable for the work involved.

The engine behind Xara is OS independent so it's possible to make a MacOS version, but still a heck of work would be required to do so. I supposed they figured the a cloud route would be a better direction.

Designing websites on mobile and tablet devices is rather... niche.

**Nathan Brazil** · 08 May 2019, 03:44 PM

So the sense of this I am getting, is that Xara management believe the most profit can be derived from serving corporate needs, and there is not enough profit for them to cater for an on-line version or tablet based version capable of reading desktop files?

While I take your point of tablet design being niche, I think it worth pointing out that Adobe, among others, have acknowledged the mobile market and are gradually starting to equip that workspace. As tablets continue to get faster, with more storage, it will not be long before anything that can be done on the desktop can also be done on a tablet. The one caveat being that mouse support really needs to be introduced.

**Rob-Xar** · 08 May 2019, 04:13 PM

Xara Cloud can read desktop website project files and make edits / additions to them, but I would say it's a secondary feature to its main purpose (i.e. we've not put as much development time in editing website project files as the business document editor).

I suspect Adobe has the resources to venture into that sort of market. I'd be interested to see where tablets are in the next few years, as I understand it Tablet sales have been gradually slowing recently.

**mwenz** · 08 May 2019, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

...
I suspect Adobe has the resources to venture into that sort of market. I'd be interested to see where tablets are in the next few years, as I understand it Tablet sales have been gradually slowing recently.

Serif is also a small company with limited resources. They seem to make the dual-OS work for them.

The Mac market has remained fairly stable in comparison to PCs. Just like tablets may be a small number in comparison to desktops. However, it's still a bazillion devices and a share of that market is still sizable.

**Nathan Brazil** · 08 May 2019, 04:26 PM

Well, then it may not be a question of resources? What I mean is, Xara Cloud can read desktop files, so the thought must be there to do more.

As for tablet sales slowing, so are desktop sales as the market divides itself. This is perhaps one case where the more diversity there is, the more sales.

**mwenz** · 08 May 2019, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

I don't know personally, I can only assume it was deemed not to be as profitable for the work involved.

The engine behind Xara is OS independent so it's possible to make a MacOS version, but still a heck of work would be required to do so. I supposed they figured the a cloud route would be a better direction...

Which is what Serif decided to do and they are eating the market as an alternative to, well, most all lower-cost, perpetually licensed applications.

However, I doubt they will enter the web-building market again. At least directly aimed at web sites. I suspect ePubs will be added in upcoming versions and likely HTML5 publications.

This is the route Quark took--the HTML5 publications. The next version features FLEX control. The videos look very promising as one can then build micro-sites that will automatically adapt to screens no matter the size and resolution of the viewing device.