SGI selling Alias

Should Apple puchase Alias?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

http://www.macnn.com/news/23388

My wish is that Apple would buy Alias to bring StudioTools for OS X …

jobs and warren pratt (previous alias|wavefront president, now back at sgi in cali) are buddies from way back. jobs was spotted visiting warren in toronto years ago. rumor was jobs wanted to buy alias but sgi wasn’t dealing.

jobs got what he wanted: maya for the mac, a software showpiece to prove os x was for real, that huge complex apps could be ported and would work. well, v4.5 did, v3.5 was horse doodoo in many ways.

if apple bought alias they’d spin off studio, not port it. maya is a totally separate code base with zillions more potential users than studio, and complements the existing apple strengths in 2d and video/film.

just saw another free modeler online. Max cant get cost down. SoftImage neither. Lightwave/Newtek is the best competitor to Maya right now imo. but if Apple bought Alias it wouldnt be lean enough to chase LW. or fend off glut of good free apps. Studio’s days are numbered imo. best if Alias was its own boss.

Alias should stop being so greedy and go after market-share instead by significantly lowering their prices and selling direct.

Their user base has exploded over the years as more and more design disciplines require computer modeling (videogame industry for one!) But Alias continues to position themselves as a high-end CAID sold on a “seat” basis. C’mon guys, that era is over! Anyone with a laptop can run Alias now!

The problem with this is that they’d instantly loose their cash-cows in the process–but they could make up for it in the long term through total market dominance and saturation. It could become the Photoshop of the 3D world.