Altium Circuit Studio Development???

Hi,
Those of you who read some of my posts may know that I was skeptical that Circuit Studio has a future. So a little analysis follow.

It happen that I have now reasons to believe (there is a difference between belief and knowledge so don't misunderstand me) that there is (will be very soon) a Beta program for a new version of Altium CircuitStudio.

Now: is this a good news or just something we can pass over like the 1.5.2 version? That is to be seen.

What we know:

- the app development was on stand by for some years now (minor changes like in the v.1.5.1 or v.1.5.2 does not count as development).

- people who paid maintenance got screwed. That's the reality, I don't make it.

- reps promised us (the user base) a roadmap/"new big version" for some time now without an actual result. So the promises were empty (I'm not saying that the one(s) doing them did not believe them but as we know corporate bureaucracy can eat you alive).

- Altium will not create a competing product for their main product and CircuitStudio is already giving us almost unlimited PCB size while keeping the features to a minimum required.

- Altium is a revenue-driven company (who isn't?) and the way they will prioritize their work is where money come

So, up until now we've seen that CircuitStudio was an idea that they could not really fit into their planning. Some marketing guys probably decided to enter into another section of the ECAD market but they saw that it did not make a lot of money for them. I think that's why we've seen this arrhythmia in development. They could not justify the used man power.

I believe that the chance CircuitStudio might have is for the marketing guys to see a slow down in how Altium Designer is sold (like market saturation) and then for them to start looking for other ways to dazzle the investors.

What can we expect from a new version of CircuitStudio?

Perhaps a revamped GUI.

That is usually easy to do, you just take this and move it there. Perhaps a dark UI to be in sync with Altium Designer, that will serve also as a marketing tool: try the 'little' Altium Designer and then upgrade.

Yet, as already said, the best for them would have been to offer a cut-down version of Altium Designer, offering different tiers of features over a default platform so a user can buy what he needs.

This way they could sell AD at a bigger price without seeming to do it.

That may not be easy to do it from the point of view of the software developer, and require planning it in advance.

We may see increased compatibility with the new versions of Windows OS.

It's not very likely but some of the app modules (libraries) may start be imported from the new 64bit code base. What's the point in doing same work twice?

Altium need now to justify 'the wait'.

So I bet one or two of the most requested features will make it's way into the new version: maybe the Search similar / more shortcuts (since it is already easy to do that by editing some of the files) or the like.

That will be like a adrenaline shot into an almost dead body.

But as said they need also to create the illusion of a complete new app and that you do most easily by changing the GUI (look how Microsoft creates a whole new Windows 10 build but show people what?! ... a new Start Menu ). So a new look is most likely.

I renewed last year,  and nothing this year.  It’s simple wait for an update to come, then think about updating

I renewed last year,  and nothing this year.  It’s simple wait for an update to come, then think about updating