Altium (Protel) Moves Global HQ to China

umat all. =A0They are running a loss, but mostly because of the way

I agree, I think they'll end up getting bought sooner than later - I would put money on it, in case someone is running a wager.

Moving HQ AND Core Development like this is such a wild move it looks desperate. They are really betting the company. This type of wild stuff may have worked back in the early 90's with a smaller Protel but I don't think it will now. Also I read somewhere a post by the director of communications that just proves people do get dummer as you go up the power pyramid. Having spent time there, the problem is that 1). Shanghai is an overcrowded mess 2). Contrary to popular belief, it is quite an expensive location 3). They still haven't fallen in love with paying for their software and 4). If China is really going to be IT, they could have just gone crazy on sales efforts in the main manufacturing zones which btw are not Shanghai.

As an ex-user of Protel/Altium in the USA, I can say this is no longer my favourite package having gone over to Eagle some time ago - Its problem is simple: overcomplicated, overpriced and bloated. I do not feel like paying for most of the package but have no choice under present pricing models. I doubt the chinese are going to pay the prices Altium have been asking for the same reasons. Also I doubt China is going to be IT - its just getting too expensive (I'm finding for some materials its cheaper to source again in bulk within the USA) and they are moving away from manufacturing as the central driver, which has left me looking again at india, SE Asia and places like Thailand for cost saving. If they were looking for high paying users in my opinion its still the USA they should have moved to - but even this reasoning is flawed. I don't care where altium is based, and I doubt most others in this business do either. The world has flattened. I don't care if they are next door or across the globe. I think the connection between location for most software vendors and sales volume is remote. It is simply a matter of sales efforts in the target market.

I hope and would suggest that those laid off move across the street and stand up a competitive package, based on a lower pricing model for small to medium businesses. SME's in my opinion are where it will be at in the coming decade as the larger players continue exiting the design space. Altium have moved the other way and they don't deserve your loyalty so I suggest you stick it to them in Sydney.

Jeff

Since I happened to have mentioned Dave Haynie here...

Turns out he's having a "garage sale" with lots of old Commodore stuff he saved from the dumpsters (when they declared bankruptcy) and other stuff he worked on over the years. Intesting to see some old kinda-familiar hardware and software:

I wonder when we'll be seeing some fo the SED regulars "garage sales" -- surely Keith must have an old transputer kicking around his garage and Joerg must have a spare ultrasound machine or two... :-)

---Joel

No ultrasound machine here anymore :-)

Other stuff, yes, but I don't want to make money off of it. Or if I do then for a good cause, not for myself. Hopefully people will start handing over the important stuff before it's too late. Once an aging nerd has passed away the heirs will in most cases just chuck it all into a huge dumpster.

I forgot to mention that -- Dave is donating "at least 50%" of the proceeds to breast cancer research (Susa B. Kormen).

Yeah, just have look at the end of the driveway on garbage day D++ and you'll get most of my stuff...

Good man.

Most of such hardware is very old and outdated. I recently sold my MSX2 computers. None of them worked after 20+ years.

Why would I have a transputer? That was just another Europeon fad. I do have an original first-day-order IBM PC and (not so first day) expansion unit, constantly getting in my way. ;-)

Get a load of this (assume you can read some German), it was just discussed in a German NG:

For folks who can't read it: A university campus is looking for someone who can maintain their Zuse Z22 computer because the only guy that could do it so far has passed away. It's a tube computer, this kind:

In the middle inside the main cabinet you can see the "hard drive" :-)