TechCrunch
Fanboys Rejoice, GrabCAD Gets Mechanically Engineered For Android
GrabCAD, the online community and cloud-based collaboration tool for mechanical engineers and other stakeholders involved in designing physical products, is adding Android to its arsenal today. Like the company’s existing iOS offering, the Android app enables users to view any of the 200,000 or so 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) models shared by the GrabCAD community, as well as access files stored on GradCAD Workbench, a private space in the cloud for engineers and supply chain partners (and even customers) to share and collaborate on ‘work-in-progress’.
Interestingly, GrabCAD’s CEO Hardi Meybaum says that, despite the consumer mindshare of Apple’s iOS, not least amongst designer types, an Android app was the company’s most requested feature. It turns out, he says, that mechanical engineers tend to use mobile devices powered by Google’s OS, something that I get the impression took GrabCAD slightly by surprise.
However, whichever got out the door first, being present on both of the leading smartphone/tablet platforms would seem to be central to GradCAD’s mission to break down the walls of collaboration for those involved in the design of physical objects. Meybaum characterises the problem when he says that traditional CAD tools “are closed but the process is open”. By that he means that proprietary CAD systems traditionally make it difficult for mechanical engineers and other partners involved in the process, not least in manufacturing, to share 3D models and give feedback as the product develops — partly because everyone involved would need to have access to the originating CAD software, which Meybaum says can cost upwards of $4,000 per-seat.
“But with GrabCAD, anybody can view the work”, he says. In addition, building hardware — which Meybaum notes with a glint in his eye is seeing a renaissance at the moment — is inherently distributed, making remote collaboration a necessity. Moving to the cloud speeds up this process and potentially reduces time to market significantly.
It may seem obvious to those of us who have seen the cloud disrupt other industries and software for the better, though Meybaum says that for CAD files it’s not technically trivial. Getting those 3D models and proprietary file-formats converted so that they are viewable in a web browser or on mobile devices takes some decent engineering chops. To that end, GrabCAD has opened an R&D office in Cabridge, UK, to be closer to some of the traditional CAD software companies, in addition to its Boston, U.S. HQ and an engineering base in Estonia. In fact, it employs 45 staff, including engineers, across all sites.
However, GrabCAD’s Workbench offering, which gets it general release next week, isn’t just about engineering teams being able to share and view 3D models via the cloud. It also supports other file types, such as images/sketches and PDFs, and — crucially — the ability to mark up designs and leave instant feedback. With something like GrabCAD, gone are the days when work is only presented at monthly or weekly team meetings, for example, but can be ongoing no matter where each stakeholder is physically based, including when they are mobile. Update a design, and a manufacturing partner is China could immediately suggest changes, ask questions, or explain any ramifications. That does sound like progress.
Talking of which, GrabCAD now boasts nearly 700,000 engineers registered for its community, up from 250,000 last October, many of which it will hope to turn into paying Workbench customers — although some already are. It’s currently growing at a clip of 2,000 new community members per week, while 240,000 3D models have been shared publicly. As well as Workbench, the startup makes money via crowdsourced ‘challenges’ sponsored by companies such as GE.
Late last year GrabCAD raised an $8.15 million series B round led by Charles River Ventures, with participation from new investor David Sacks (co-founder of Yammer and former chief operating officer of PayPal), and existing investors Atlas Venture, NextView Ventures, and Matrix Partners. This brought GrabCAD’s total funding to around $14 million, having previously disclosed a $1.1m seed round, followed by a $4m Series A.
Valar Morghulis, Or, ‘Why I Don't Care That HBO Go Is On Apple TV'
Warning: there are some minor Game of Thrones spoilers in here, but come on, you should have seen it by now–it’s very easy to pirate!
Apple TV got HBO Go and Watch ESPN and some other content yesterday. Cool. Am I supposed to care?
This is a minor product update. Sure, it’s great for Apple TV users to get the additional content. But the real story to me is the absurdity that you still need to have cable to (legally) watch HBO.
All spring, I gathered around a TV with a bunch of friends and we’d watch the smash-hit Game of Thrones, naturally, through a friends’ parents’ HBO Go account on a laptop connected to the TV.
Many of us pay for our own Hulu+, Netflix, Spotify, and other accounts, or at least share them with a sibling. But none of us are willing to pay absurd rates for cable, and thus we can’t have HBO Go.
It’s asinine that the technology for producing quality content is so incredible (Blackwater Bay, anyone?) and yet we still have to have decades-old technology to access it.
There is clearly a market for a standalone HBO Go app. Netflix began offering online video streaming in 2007. Hulu started up in 2009. In 2010, HBO Go launched. Now, halfway through 2013, I’m supposed to get excited that there *might* be a broadband-only HBO Go in five years?
Pirates of the Iron Islands
HBO does a pretty good job right now–their content is top-notch and the HBO Go interface is great. HBO does a great job of being very lax about multiple sign-ins, to the point that it’s a running joke with many of my friends of “whose account are you using” and if you even know that person.
And yet, you still need a cable subscription for any of HBO’s content. And good luck if you’re not in the U.S.
I know, HBO isn’t worried about its record piracy right now; they claim it helps the show’s record ratings (more hype and awareness). And yes, the company has said on multiple occasions that it won’t do a standalone version soon.
This is short-sighted. A massive group of people–from the young, more-Internet savvy and more mobile demographic to, you know, every person not living in America who wants to watch the Starks and Lannisters–are growing accustomed to accessing HBO’s content without paying for it. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is a problem that will grow every year.
HBO receives marketing and sales support (think of those free trials of HBO you get when you sign up for cable), and other major financial incentives from the cable companies.
But tying everything to these old set-top boxes isn’t a winning long-term strategy for anyone.
The Iron Throne
Content has been and will be an enormous treasure to fight over. Right now, the Houses Comcast, Time Warner Cable (which hasn’t been affiliated with Time Warner since 2009), Cox, Verizon, and AT&T rule the Seven Kingdoms, and renting cable from them is about as pleasant as being Walder Frey’s wedding guest.
Their customers resent them and actively seek a way out. By keeping premium content like HBO tethered to cable subscriptions, these cable companies are protecting their present and very near future. This is exactly how big companies and mature industries get disrupted.
Isn’t the whole point of a good business strategy to put yourself in a better position for the future? The cable companies, like mad kings, seem to be trying to squeeze every last dollar out of their customers before their reign ends.
DirecTV is a great example of a network that’s actually embracing the 21st century. Their NFL Sunday Ticket, featuring every game and other features like showing every touchdown of the weekend, is extremely popular and has no doubt won them many customers away from the cable companies. Instead of trying to hide this gem in a walled garden, DirecTV offers a web version. This is the way forward.
Monsters & Kings
In Game of Thrones, for those of you who’ve managed to make it through this entire post without ever seeing an episode, the phrase Valar Morghulis means “all men must die.” We aren’t sure if the crazed author George R. Martin is going to literally kill every male character, or if a King or Queen will be able to seize the throne long enough to outlast the series.
The cable companies can figure this whole Internet thing out, and quickly, or they will die. It will be a long, slow, annoying death, or pivot out of the content space, but eventually, they’ll be gone.
Most of these cable companies are also Internet providers. They have two products: television and Internet; more users want Internet than television, and many would like premium content at the right price, via either platform. The cable companies insist on using premium content to try to prop up cable sales, rather than just switching the premium content to their more popular product, or making it available on both.
I’ve yet to hear a good rationale for why this can’t happen. Because calculator sales will hurt abacus sales?
If you have a choice between $50 for cable, $15 more for HBO, and $80 for Internet ($145) — versus — $122 for faster internet (for video streaming), $15 for HBO, and $8 for Hulu+ or Netflix ($145), which are you going to take? Probably the one with faster Internet.
That’s where the cable companies can survive, and even thrive. But they have to be more flexible and see their premium content (all of their content, really) the way their users do.
In the most recent Thrones’ season finale, Tyrion Lannister ominously notes, “Monsters are dangerous and, just now, kings are dying like flies.”
The cable companies are kings right now. But their kingdoms are ripe for the taking. Netflix and Amazon are producing exclusive content to rival HBO and the old guard of Starz and Cinemax. Apple has long been interested in a TV project, the shape and scope (beyond Apple TV) of which is unclear.
The clock is ticking for the cable companies and HBO. Kings are dying like flies. And winter is coming.
Images via, io9, and my own screenshot.
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