Update on the Product Roadmap

I want you all to listen to this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwi2XgkSi8o It’s a video clip of Mr. Sicot explaining stuff. I’ll wait here while you listen.

Ok, done? Maybe you need to listen to it again. What is he saying?

You know how President Bush couldn’t say one particular key word for a global leader to be familiar with (noo-kee-lar)? well this president can’t get the keyword “desktop” right. It comes out “dekstop” every time. What does that mean? Probably nothing, but it didn’t stop a lot of press from trying to find a spelling for nukeelar.

Here’s another thing that probably doesn’t mean anything.

“It will never be an either/or … choice for you.”

What does that mean? I know he meant that to be comforting and to explain everything, but those words are exactly what a lot of people have been fearing. Isn’t it an “either/or” choice that we want? If we don’t have a choice, then… Maybe he meant that for SolidWorks, it’s not necessarily an either/or choice between desktop and online, that SolidWorks could develop both. That may have been what he meant, but it’s not what he said. He said users won’t have an either/or choice. He may also have meant the opposite of what he said – “You will always have a choice”, but again, that’s not what he said.

What I wish I could hear him say is “Desktop and Online versions of SWV6 will be essentially the same software – any differences would be akin to the cosmetic differences between 32 and 64 bit software – not similar to the differences between Catia V4 and Catia V5.” This statement would address the fears directly, but I don’t think he said or implied anything like it.

And again,

“We will always offer locally installed desktop CAD…”

And to clarify, because he knows this is important, he says it again, but differently.

“We will always have locally installed desktop CAD.”

Well, yes, even Jeff Ray said that we will have desktop CAD and we ourselves will choose to change to cloud when our pain is great enough. He said desktop CAD was being killed off by the cloud, and we were doing the killing. The message most people seemed to get from Jeff Ray was that the desktop was not going to be developed in parallel or sync with the cloud.

Why do I bring this up? Why do I take something where the meaning should be obvious and just try to cause trouble with it? Well, partially at least, because I seriously doubt anyone else will. Everyone else is pretending to have heard what they assume Mr. Sicot meant and to be consoled. To me he just extended the mystery of what SW intentions actually are.

Am I just ridiculing the French guy? No. I want him to succeed. I want him to get that CSWP certification, which will regain some credibility for the office of SW CEO. Most of all, I bring all of this up to somehow get the message clarified, beyond any doubts. Is it enough to understand that he meant me to be consoled, and therefore I should be consoled? Again, no. I’m trying to understand what he actually said rather than just what I want him to say.