Alibre: No, We're #1!

"While other companies in this space crow and quibble between themselves about who has the largest customer base...", writes CEO Greg Milliken of Alibre in a press release.

A day after I posted PTC's claim at having the most installed MCAD seats in industry, Alibre issued a press release saying in effect, "Yes, but we're growing the fastest." It reminded me that -- of all the ways I listed for vendors declaring themselves #1 -- I missed a few. Like:

- Fastest growing quarter.
- Most sales this fiscal year.
- Largest percentage increase (in sales, seats, $$$. whatever).
- Largest market share of SMB [small and medium size market] or other market.
- Largest market share any way the vendor decides to slice it.
- And, if all else fails, comparing themselves with themselves.

Back to the Alibre press release. Select phases include:

* "Industry's Fastest-Growing Solid Modeling Software..."
* "...Alibre Design Xpress launch that has seen the company's user base grow by more than 30 times in six months."
* "Alibre is now delivering more licenses of parametric solid modeling software per month than any other company in the market."
* "As the number of people using our product is exploding..."
* "...we have been rewarded with an unprecedented increase in users..."

But no hard numbers. So I asked.

Peter Stevens of Alibre Marketing replied: "Check Download.com. 72,585 downloads since August 2005. Expand the listing for Xpress and you will see over 5600 last week alone. And this is just through Download.com. This very public source confirms it."

There's a bit of a mixing of numbers: a large number from one source, but not the total number. The number for the free Xpress, but not the number for the not-free Design.

By comparison, PTC last year sold 321 licences per week (of all its MCAD packages). The difference? Alibre Xpress costs the user $0, while Pro/E starts at US$5,000. Alibre makes $0 a week from Xpress downloads, while PTC nets $4 million per week from all its MCAD software. Naturally, Alibre counts on future revenue from each captured customer.

Comments

[Greg Milliken, CEO, Alibre]

Ralph,

The number we claim stands on its own and doesn't really need any special metric for comparison. We didn't claim largest revenue, just that we are putting more licenses of parametric solid modeling into the hands of users than any other company. It's pretty straightforward.

As you say, naturally, we count on future revenue from Xpress users, and this is happening frequently and accelerating. The "future" can often end up being the next day or just a week or two later.

For instance, here is an excerpt from one of many emails we received from Xpress users just today.

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Just some questions about any version upgrade paths that Alibre might offer:

1) If I start out with the Xpress version can I upgrade to the Standard version at a later date? Likewise, can I then move from Standard to Professional to Expert? I have 5 years of AutoDesk Inventor experience, so I would like to have most of the same features that I am used to, and the full Expert product is a little bit much in one chunk, but moving up slowly over time does appeal.

2) Can certain add-ons (PhotoRender, Part Library, Nastran Motion, etc.) be added a la carte to the Standard version or do you absolutely have to buy the Professional or Expert versions to get these features? It would be nice to tailor a version to your specific needs; makes your product even more versatile to end users.
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We're finding that the more people who touch Xpress, the more who end up purchasing one of our other products.

Funny how that works. Alibre is strongly profitable and we are seeing record sales each month.

I believe that Xpress is benefiting from viral marketing, just like Hotmail. People who try it are telling other people about it, much faster than we are driving them to Xpress by our own efforts. This is good for end users and the market. We are breaking down the barriers that the entrenched CAD vendors have raised: price barriers, ease of use barriers, forced retirements, encrypted file formats, you name it.

All those who are happy with those barriers are welcome to shell out $5,000+ to the vendor of their choice. Clearly, many choose to do just that. We regularly deal with prospects telling us that X vendor or Y vendor is telling them "Alibre's product can't do what ours does, and anyway, they won't be around for long; don't buy from them, go with us," they say, "you can trust us." We just shake our heads and keep doing what we do.

The result is that 7,000 to 10,000 a week are starting to realize there just might be a better way: Alibre.

By the way, I wish PTC well with their 321 licenses a week.

[Glenn]

Greg, you mau wish PTC well with their 321 licenses a week.
But how many licenses is Alibre SELLING in a week?

[Steven]

Congradulation Alibre!
I am very impressed by your web presentation and training program on the web. I wish the very best for your product but their are 15 years of Pro-e Database in large companys. They also drive the small outfits to comply with compatablity. Do you have a conversion program that will convert Pro-e data into Alibre? This is worth $100,000 to get away from the Pro-e domain. How do you plan to support the software in the future if your initial cost of $1,000.00?. No use to have a service contract unless it is less than 1,000.00 yr. or is your service contract more! Sounds like buyer beware..... or go for broke and save money now and deal with it in 10 yrs.

[Miles Hellon]

Steven,I'm sure Alibre could survive solely on the market that it's creating for itself,if necessary... Most likely, the structure of the whole market will change though.

I didn't understand your point about service contracts. Perhaps English is not your native language?