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24-Ruby IV
ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
24-Ruby IV
January 10, 2022
Question

Mathcad dreams

  • January 10, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 6362 views

Each of us loves to dream. A person dreams that he has become the richest person on earth and can afford this or that. Another dreams that he would become the president of the United States or Russia and would do this or that.
My dreams are more modest.
My dream is that PTC will finally be smart enough to make Mathcad a free program. Not only Express. but full version of Mathcad 15 and Prime. At the same time, I am confident that PTC's earnings will grow at the same time. Why? Explainer!
Those using Matcad for STEM education will get to know Creo, etc., and then move on to this project. The bottom line! By making Matcad free, PTC will generate more revenue.

2 replies

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StuartBruff23-Emerald V
23-Emerald V
January 10, 2022
@ValeryOchkov wrote:

Each of us loves to dream. One dreams that he has become the richest man on earth and can afford this or that. Another dreams that he became the president of the United States or Russia and would do this or that.
My dreams are more modest.
I dream that PTC will finally be smart enough to make Mathcad a free program. Not only Express. but the full version Mathcad 15 and Prime. At the same time, I am confident that PTC revenues will grow at the same time. Why? Explaining!
Those who use Matcad for educational purposes on the STEM technology will get acquainted with Creo etc and then will move on to this project. Total! By making Matcad free, the PTS firm will receive more income.

 

I'm not so sure, Valery.   

 

Perhaps the marketing guys could (although I'm guessing not, for commercial reasons) tell us how much impact Mathcad Express had on uptake of Mathcad Prime, and how much Prime leads on to other PTC products?  Mathcad Prime is, AFAIA, sold at a reasonable price to students: https://www.mathcad.uk/product/ptc-mathcad-student-licence-subscription/

 

I'm not even sure how much overlap there is between the (potential) Mathcad user base and Creo.  Apart from Excel, the main external software that I (and others in my working environments) interacted with were Matlab and Simulink.  The latter two required M11..15 Components as the interface, which isn't possible in Prime.  I also used Axum for its enhanced plotting capability and Smartsketch(?) for a while. 

 

At the moment I usually play around with algorithms and microcontrollers, and I'm starting to look at some AI. Perhaps my biggest problem with Mathcad at the moment isn't directly to do with the product - I'm constantly losing track of where I've defined (and refined) useful functions.  It would be nice to have some sort of configuration control software that managed this kind of thing and had a Windows Explorer interface to make it easy to use.  I'm guessing that some of PTC's more useful looking products (Thingworx, Windchill) are going to be overkill for my needs.  I'll probably also need to sit down with a very stiff whisky and an oxygen supply before even thinking about looking at their prices.

 

I think a more realistic approach would be to make Mathcad Prime cost-competitive with its main maths application rivals.  As I've mentioned before, much though I like Mathcad, its current capability and text processing shortcomings, plus its current annual subscription price, do not make it an attractive option financially ... I would have to consume много пива и очень много водки before my beer goggles (пивные очки?) even glanced in its direction!  

 

Oh, keeping on topic, my dream would be to remain within the Mathcad IDE for everything I needed to do, from initial whiteboard/beermat ideas through to publication standard ... and without resorting to robbing a few banks, or stealing Bill Gates' loose change, to pay for it!

 

Stuart

DJNewman
DJNewman18-Opal
18-Opal
January 10, 2022

Mathcad marketing guy here. Mathcad Express is critically important for Mathcad Prime adoption. Both the 30-day free trial and the free-for-life-reduced-functionality part. Biggest marketing tool we have, since it's turned our whole business model into freemium. And in 2022, we're going to work harder for the Express to Prime uptake. (Mathcad Express Prime 8, notably.)

 

With regards to Mathcad purchases leading to Creo purchases, and this is why the "Mathcad Dream" won't be profitable for PTC, as our general manager Brian Thompson said in a recent interview, ~75% or so of Mathcad customers don't have any other PTC products. And that's probably not because they don't like Creo or anything (Creo is great and everyone knows it!), but most Mathcad customers are not mechanical engineers, so they have little use for a 3D CAD platform. So it's relatively easy to sell Mathcad to Creo customers, and last year we added Mathcad to Creo Design Advanced and Creo Design Advanced Plus, so now it's included in four  of the five Creo Design packages. But it's harder to sell Creo to Mathcad customers.

 

Mathcad is already quite affordable for students and universities, but the "give away free products for STEM education" strategy is what another PTC product, Onshape, is trying right now. PTC Education is very proud of that. We'll see what "very cheap" versus "free" does for paid product adoption in some years from now.

PTC Marketer for Creo and Mathcad. I run their YouTube channels, some Creo campaigns, and all Mathcad campaigns and communications.
    S
    StuartBruff23-Emerald V
    23-Emerald V
    January 10, 2022
    @DJNewman wrote:

    Mathcad marketing guy here. Mathcad Express is critically important for Mathcad Prime adoption. Both the 30-day free trial and the free-for-life-reduced-functionality part. Biggest marketing tool we have, since it's turned our whole business model into freemium. And in 2022, we're going to work harder for the Express to Prime uptake. (Mathcad Express Prime 8, notably.)

     

    With regards to Mathcad purchases leading to Creo purchases, and this is why the "Mathcad Dream" won't be profitable for PTC, as our general manager Brian Thompson said in a recent interview, ~75% or so of Mathcad customers don't have any other PTC products. And that's probably not because they don't like Creo or anything (Creo is great and everyone knows it!), but most Mathcad customers are not mechanical engineers, so they have little use for a 3D CAD platform. So it's relatively easy to sell Mathcad to Creo customers, and last year we added Mathcad to Creo Design Advanced and Creo Design Advanced Plus, so now it's included in four  of the five Creo Design packages. But it's harder to sell Creo to Mathcad customers.

     

    Mathcad is already quite affordable for students and universities, but the "give away free products for STEM education" strategy is what another PTC product, Onshape, is trying right now. PTC Education is very proud of that. We'll see what "very cheap" versus "free" does for paid product adoption in some years from now.

     

    Thanks for that insight, Dave.  Very interesting, particularly the implications for a long-term strategy.

     

    By "Onshape" do you mean this: https://www.onshape.com/en/

     

    Cheers,

     

    Stuart

    S
    StuartBruff23-Emerald V
    23-Emerald V
    January 11, 2022

    Из праздного любопытства, Валерий, зачем ты сменил язык с английского на русский?

     

    Stuart

    V
    24-Ruby IV
    ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IVAuthor
    24-Ruby IV
    January 11, 2022

    It was done automatically without me. 

    S
    StuartBruff23-Emerald V
    23-Emerald V
    January 14, 2022

    Хорошо.

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