I am no expert in shares, so I thank reader Andy Wells for helping me out. PTC shares fell so dramatically because the company had been flying so high. For the first time in 40 quarters (that's ten years!) revenues will be lower than expected. On 2 July, PTC warned revenue would be 15% lower than the expected US$292 to $300 million. The full details will not be available until 16 July, but reasons provided at http://www.techstocks.com/~wsapi/investor/reply-5081531
"The lack of mainstream 3D business applications is hurting the whole industry. Without a business need for 3D, there is a huge vacuum in the demand side. We call this the 3D canyon -- on one side are games using 3D, and on the other professional applications running on workstations. In between is a canyon which represents a major market void. Totally lacking in the market is elasticity in demand, price, performance, and solutions for buyers. The industry cannot live on games alone.
"Software companies in the 3D tool space are struggling. Newfire is gone, Cosmo will apparently be dissolved and not sold to Sony, and others are not making money. The food chain of making money is broken. That is, without the demand side being driven by end users wanting 3D solutions, companies are left holding the bag with too few buyers, high costs of development, and disappointing results. It can be said that the animation market has a food chain, but this is a tiny market and one not focused on real-time 3D. It is also a market which has no corporate or business buyers and few consumer buyers.
"3D chip pricing continues to fall. Where last year the performance price point was US$30, when a new cutting edge chip was announced, it has now slid to US$24 and below. The sub-US$1,000 PC has spawned new buyers at the retail level but at the same time placed enormous pressure on component suppliers to drive prices further down. 3D chip companies are under pressure to move parts at razor thin and, in some cases, negative margins. This is not a healthy situation."
Haptic will introduce ACIS-enabled SolidTouch at SIGGRAPH '98 in Orlando FL USA, July 19-24, 1998. SolidTouch will be available to ACIS developers in Sept'98. Other hardware products includes the MouseCAT, a two-button mouse with high fidelity haptic feedback, and the PenCAT, a pen-based interface with a force sensitive tip.
In related news, Spatial Technology is shipping ACIS v4.1 just 8 weeks after ACIS v4.0 became available. Spatial says there are now 1.3 millions users of 160 software packages made by 400 licensees that contain the ACIS solids modeling kernel. http://www.spatial.com
http://www.bentley.com/tools/bulletin/7108.htm - A dynamic page that identifies Bentley System's position regarding Y2K.
http://www.sdrc.com/news/announce/1998/0127e.html - Info on SDRC's Y2k compliance.
"Merrill Lynch, sounding a rare note of optimism about the year 2000
problem, says in a new report that most companies will have the date-field
glitch under control in time for 2000."
-- Jeff Sweat, and thanks to David Cohn for passing
that on.
I have the position of Launch Editor, which means I help find articles for the first issue, and write an "industry outlook" column once an issue for the next two years. The regular editor is Carolyn Mascarenas. If you have tips, a how-to article, or an applications story (how you use Visio or IntelliCAD in a fascinating way), email me at <ralphg@xyzpress.com>
Meanwhile, over in the discussion group on the TurboCAD Web site, users are talking about launching TurboCAD magazine ... And CMP Media is cutting 200 jobs at the third-largest computer magazine publisher ... And "Mac Publishing said the decision to halt a paper edition makes it the first print publication to move its sole publishing platform online." -- TipsWorld
Thinking of writing a computer book? http://www.swayneagency.com/page10.html says these are the current *hot* topics:
Bentley Systems
MicroStation/J beta is scheduled to ship to "Synergy" testers at the
end of July. 1998.
DynaCADD
dataSketch Law Enforcement Software introduced DynaCOP, a software
package designed that works with DynaCADD to make it easy for law enforcement
officers to accurately re-create the scene of a crime or accident.
Eagle Point Software Corporation
Not all is doom and gloom in software shares. Eagle Point 4Q revenues
will exceed expectations. Stated Rod Blum, president and ceo: "Though results
were positive for the fourth quarter, we remain cautious as we continue
to monitor our industry's reaction to the Autodesk/Softdesk merger and
the recent introduction of the IntelliCAD 98 CAD platform from Visio Corporation."
Graphisoft
The CAD company relocated its headquarters last week to the new Graphisoft
Park situated on the banks of the Danube River just north of central Budapest.
The Park will anchor dozens of software companies, including Microsoft
Hungary.
IMSI
FloorPlan 3D Design Suite includes Lightscape 3D rendering technology,
as well as 100 other design features, such as an integrated materials estimator,
single-document floor level capabilities, elevation views, continuous object
insertion, three-dimensional garden designer, and the ability to export
to CAD programs using DXF files -- all for just US$49.95.
Iomega
The company has won a preliminary injunction barring SyQuest from selling
its 1GB SparQ removable hard drive cartridges in France.
Microsoft
IBM says its online database of its US patents dwarfs TerraServer.
Microsoft created the TerraServer site to overcome accusations that Microsoft
products to not scale. Bad marketing move: the site has been overwhelmed
by the number of visitors.
Siggraph
The CAD Society Meeting at Siggraph, 5:00 PM, Monday July 20, at the
Ming Courts Chinese Restaurant, 9188 International Drive, about a 3-minute
walk north of the Orange County Convention Center, just north of the Clarion
hotel.
Visio
Kaspia Systems was purchased by Visio for about US$23.3 million in
stock. Kaspia makes fully automated enterprise network discovery, physical
inventory, device auditing, trending, and reporting software for the network
monitoring, remote monitoring outsourcing, and Internet service provider
markets.
"Autodesk hasn't changed the name of anything related to DWF.
The reason we wrote that the 'Open DWF Developer Community' had grown to
over 175 members was because the developer community is open to anyone
who wants to join (free) and redistribute WHIP! and/or DWF applications.
Grammatically speaking, 'Open' in this context is a modifier on 'Community'
not 'DWF'."
-- Jason Pratt, WHIP! Product Manager,
Autodesk, Inc.
Re: Now With Bigger, Juicier Raisins!
"I suppose soon they will boast, 'Now with grapes!'"
-- Joe Biegelsen
Re: Prices Charged to CAD Developers
"Autodesk tries to limit the team to one site. We've been fighting
this for years to no avail. They claim if I move my desk from one building
across the river to another building I need a second developer license.
We, obviously, disagree. Still hammerin' this one."
-- JBM
Re: AutoCAD Works With Java
"Probably should have read 'AutoCAD works with Microsoft's Java.' M$
has been hard at work killing Java, and it looks like it's starting to
pay off, if people don't make a distinction between pure Java and Microsoft's
implementation. Of course, for the CAD world it probably doesn't matter
too much since I'm sure NT will be the platform of choice anyway, if it
isn't already."
-- Carlos Eberhardt