I would suggest Altium has two main check points for whether this move to a lower entry cost will be successful. These are in addition to Dave's mention of a free starter edition.
The first hurdle will be what the price ladder will look like, once we move above the free starter edition. I have noticed many companies making this ladder way too steep. What this may mean to a one man start-up, is that to actually create a competitive design, he may end up needing the 'full' multi-kilobucks edition of the software.
We may debate exactly what these limits could be, but if the free+low cost versions of Altium only allows even experienced designers to make 'toy' boards, then Altium may as well not bother. One thing to keep in mind here, which was mentioned previously, is board size. For various reasons many start-ups cannot or will not use the smallest packages and components, thus equal designs may require different board sizes, depending on the size of the company behind them. Small, one man start-up => more likely to need more board area for a given design.
Similarly, the number of signal layers. If I cannot have at least 4 layers, and have the ability to knock holes in my ground and power layers, the latter in order to reduce parasitic capacitance on parts of a board, then this will put a serious limit to modern, mixed signal designs. More so again, if we consider the start-up is more likely to use older (Ie. larger) types of SMDs.
The second hurdle Altium has to pass, is no subscriptions! I genuinely hope free_electron is wrong about this one, as that will be a deal breaker to many people. The same reason this sounds great to the accounting department is the same reason why it is poison to hobbyists and small start-ups: The recurring costs, and the strings attached.
To a small company the idea that you have to pay 'rent' for critical parts of your tool chain will be very hard to swallow. By definition a start-up will have little idea about what next year will bring. If they have rented many of their tools, then it will be much harder to scale operations back for a while, if there is a quiet period. This is an all-or-nothing situation: You cannot promise just a hair of support and upgrades to last year's customers, if it takes X times average annual fee per software package in your tool chain to keep operations running. On the other hand if you have time unlimited access to the software, then you can just scale back as needed, do your old daytime job function for a while, and be ready to jump back into action at a moment's notice with no fees attached.
Secondly, the subscription model implies a requirement for a program package to 'call home' at regular intervals, and probably even to be online while using the program (for 'cloud access', of course... ). Otherwise there would be no way of enforcing a time limit.
However, the hobbyist and the small start-up are both likely to be using very economical DSL network connections, intended for domestic applications. No enterprise level network with enterprise level support. So having local network outages taking out your tool chain is a very real - and completely unnecessary - risk to accept. You will literally be one errand tree root from shutting down all your 'rented' software packages.
As for Adobe moving to arentalcloud service model: Seems the financial analysts doesn't believe too strongly in this one, long term, once people realize what being a rental customer actually entails.
What's the learning curve like for going from Eagle to Altium?
pick your poison : 250$ every few years for a major update or 10$ a month over 2 years and always up to date with new features release on a monthly basis ?
same price in the end. i'd rather not have to wait for 2 years before i get some new tool...
I would rather have a tool be optimized and well tested on one platform than slow and buggy on multiple platforms
So... you don't want to pay forever... how about updates ? how about mayor new versions.
If you must have the latest and greatest then yes a subscription is better. (You probably also have a iPhone 5S)
So... you don't want to pay forever... how about updates ? how about mayor new versions.
when an application goes from 3.0 to 4.0 it is normal to pay upgrade fee.
with the sas system there is no upgrade fee. you are always up to date.
pick your poison : 250$ every few years for a major update or 10$ a month over 2 years and always up to date with new features release on a monthly basis ?
same price in the end. i'd rather not have to wait for 2 years before i get some new tool...
With a subscription model, your only choice is to pay the fee every year or lose all access to the tool (and along with that, lose all access to your existing data files).
I find it intriguing why nobody screams for a free version of Orcad, Pads, Allegro , Boardstation , Zuken or any other hi end PCB tool. Yet everyone screams for a free version of Altium ... curious...
Ditto why nobody screams for cross platform of those tools...
Now, i have another question for the general audience here.
Here is something i have a hard time understanding. Most likely it is because i think differently, because i'm socially awkward, because i have fun with electronics as a hobby (i also enjoy scuba diving , and the beach and traveling and good food and all kinds of other stuff )
...
Obviously you have much more experience on the board than I do but I do not see this thread as "screams for a free version" so much as recommendations to Altium on how to be successful if they are going to go thru the expense of offering a free\low cost version.
But, when it comes to this 1000$ piece of code you want for your hobby, that will be used for years and is cheaper in the long run than the other leisure activities ( total cost over the amount of time used ) oh no. it's gotta be free , or less than 100$...
So... you don't want to pay forever... how about updates ? how about mayor new versions.
when an application goes from 3.0 to 4.0 it is normal to pay upgrade fee.
with the sas system there is no upgrade fee. you are always up to date.
pick your poison : 250$ every few years for a major update or 10$ a month over 2 years and always up to date with new features release on a monthly basis ?
same price in the end. i'd rather not have to wait for 2 years before i get some new tool...
If you decide to pick it up again years later , you cough up the delta ... Sounds fair to me.
Help me out here. i really have a hard time wrapping my head around this.
if you totalize the amount of cash spent on those leisures on a yearly basis you will end up well above the 1000$ cost of that program.
Now, if one of your leisure activities, things you derive enjoyment from, happens to be electronics. how come suddenly the program needs to be free. ?
if you totalize the amount of cash spent on those leisures on a yearly basis you will end up well above the 1000$ cost of that program.
Now, if one of your leisure activities, things you derive enjoyment from, happens to be electronics. how come suddenly the program needs to be free. ?
I don't think anyone is talking about a hugely functional free version.
As I mentioned in my video, there are 3 reason why they need some sort of limited free version.
a) The company they are going head-to-head with Eagle, and Eagle has a free version. And that is one one of the major reasons why Eagle is now the defacto standard low end tool in many areas.
b) There are so many (mostly limited) free options at the low end, that to capture any large part of the OSHW/Hobbyist/Maker market, you need a free version that does something useful so people can suck it and see on a real design. Or they can contribute to OSWH projects that fit within the free tool requirement without paying anything.
c) Content producers and bloggers will be unlikely to do tutorials and/or promote the use of a tool that doesn't have a free version.
So it's not really about people simply wanting/expecting everything for free.
If you decide to pick it up again years later , you cough up the delta ... Sounds fair to me.
I was of the understanding that it was significantly more than the delta. i.e. they stung you with a hefty penalty for doing that, so as to "encourage" you to stay on subscription forever.
so why does this not work for software ? it's gotta do all but be free ... the economics don't work guys...
i can't wrap my mind around that one.
How about the 'low cost'. is 100$ low cost enough ? can it be 300$ ? why not 1000$. A low cost rigol scope is 500$. want a little notch up and its 1000$.
so why would a 1000$ piece of software ( assuming you use as-is) that lets you make the boards to your hearts content be problematic ?
long post