Unfortunately, that is exactly what Trimble needs to do to convince the majority of us loyal Classic pro m&s license holders to consider moving to the subscription model. Trimble needs to tell us what will be for this price hike, not what bigger online storage will be available or what virtual-this and artificial-that goggle or collaboration platform we get and haven’t to date bothered to need or use. Instead we want to know what major features will be in the “next” release, how Layout will “grow-up,” how SU+L = (real) BIM, etc. One of your biggest allies and supporters, Matt Donley, said it well in his recent video blog…virtually (pun intended) nobody uses all the fancy, currently advertised extras in the Pro subscription plan. Therefore, the 2.3x price increase is completely unjustified without real commitment from Trimble to improve SU and L. Period. All the frustration you read here says basically what I’m saying.
So, with all due respect, don’t tell us unfortunately you can’t tell us what the plans are because unfortunately you won’t get more money to achieve them without sharing honestly and truly what we will really see as a benefit, and following through on those commitments.
Thank you for the due respect part. I am sometimes not sure whether not replying is better than replying to say you can’t give an answer for now. You will be upset either way, but at least you know that I wanted to tell you something.
Thank you to all who have contributed here, including poor Colin who bore the brunt of my anger…
The consensus seems to be that many of us are frustrated at the lack of real progress for some time…
(Think back to the pre Trimble age, and we saw major leaps and bounds from version to version).
& we all would like Layout to “grow up”.
The real crux of the matter is expressed by Colin when he says he’s not permitted to tell us anything… Trimble has this attitude of “secrecy” that is way beyond understandable & normal protection of intellectual property & business strategy…
In this day & age, it’s all about working WITH your client base in as much transparency as is tolerable without self-harm !
So come on Trimble, let the SU Team dialogue with us & save your client base once & for all… Otherwise, like many, with a heavy heart we WILL leave & learn something else (yes, even perhaps Revit )…
Let’s make this really simple:
Will you Trimble people give us
1 - REAL BIM capability ?
2 - Layout that sings & zings rather than clunks & crashes ?
Not so hard is it ?
Thank you.
One has to decide whether to pony up and subscribe or move on at this point. There is no retraction from their position. They have made the decision to go the micro$lop route. Instead of putting out a high quality product and improve it thereby having loyal customer$ who will buy upgrades at modest prices, they will put the customer$ on subscription. Google offered the product for free. Trimble purchased the product and is in the process of changing it into a profit center.
People need to start voting with their pocketbook and just move away from companies who have this subscription point of view. That is hard because one doesn’t arrive at this position without developing a comfort level with a product that was chosen from a combination of a price point and features. And they are counting on that. What they are essentially doing is freezing software at a higher price point which allows them to operate with a higher level of comfort. That removes the emphasis on quality as you are apparently seeing. It allows them to meter out improperly tested changes over time.
It seems as though at least one member of the Sketchup team is suggesting that one has to freeze at 2006. I froze at 2016 and will be moving on as soon as they break it which they will. I’d actually bought 2017 but didn’t like the changes to the user interface. They’ve already partially broken the connection to the warehouse. Anybody labeled SketchUp Team has become a Sketchup Sales Force Team person.
It has been shown that quality companies can survive at this lower price point. They put out a quality product with a lower price point and iterate with quality. The catch is that, in order to survive, they have to make sure that every single release adds value and works well.
It also seems like a piece of software should be like a piece of hardware. It needs to be complete relatively quickly. We’re not asked to rent our PC’s. Software should be the same.
Another possibility would be to create another warehouse and forum (?) independent of Trimble but you’d need to have the support of the developers and users would have to freeze with the paid version that they have. And enough developers and users would have to come on board in order for it to work.
I liked the economical model by LastSoftware and Google about SketchUp. Last software sold at the right cost SketchUp. And Google sold a Pro version and a free desktop version with some limitations.
It was the right balance between users, and Google Free version made the success of SketchUp until now, by the expansion of the number of users, so the expansion of the economical model and market.
Well said Stough!
This seems like a failure on Trimble’s part to SELL us on the value of “upcoming” improvements … Trimble needs to convince it’s mostly loyal (maybe until now?) long term SU Pro Classic users that they really will add value and improve the product (especially LayOut) in proportion to this big $ increase subscription gambit.
And yet, it appears they can’t make any promises, or even talk about any upcoming improvements … which means, in my opinion, Trimble isn’t marketing the product very well!
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Trimble needs to adopt a different attitude towards it’s customers … Trust us with some information, give us some real commitments, and then maybe we will trust you with more of our money!
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