Trimble buys Google Sketchup

[Charlie__V]

Hope it is a good thing for SKP users.

http://ww2.trimble.com/3d/

C

[DWBuilder]

Wow. Why did Google sell?

[Dick Seibert]

Trimble is GPS/Loran company, I guess they are going to integrate GPS with SketchUp.

The home I'm building is back in the redwoods, the structural engineer wanted the surveyor to immediately E_mail his data to the shop drawing firm to overlay the DWG files over the GPS data, but there was no satellite reception there and they couldn't do it.

[MarkMc]

They overspent on in house barista's and forgot the cost of the Java? Otherwise I'd guess that SU offers less in core business synergies [ad rev] and they got bored with the up keep.

[clydewater]

Hope they do not screw up a great product at an excellent price.

[Alaskan Son]

Hope they do not screw up a great product at an excellent price.

I have always suspected this was Google's plan from the get go. It just seemed SU was priced much lower than it could be, especially the free version. It always seemed to me like they were trying to build up a large user base so they could sell it.

[jstoddard]

I've been out of pocket for a couple of days and not watching the wire (my bad) - but honestly - this is absolutely shocking to me, and to a lot of people who have been SU enthusiasts since day 1. Nobody has the kind of development/distribution resources Google has, and nobody is going to be able to monetize SU the way Google can/could have.

I don't want to say more until I can speak with my contacts at Google and interview somebody at Trimble, so let's just say I am greatly concerned for the product roadmap.

It's not like Google to acquire something like this as a major piece of their strategy -- and then sell it. Even if SU was losing money, which I'm sure it probably was - it would be such a miniscule piece of their empire to be insignificant. The reason they acquired it was to provide a simple modeling platform for their Google Earth project and to standardize a 3D design platform for all the other stuff they're doing. So if it's good-bye to SU, it's time to look deeper into the fate of all those other initiatives that utilized SketchUp...because there is literally nothing they can replace it with. It's not like a cloud-based spreadsheet or word processor program...those are a dime a dozen. There is literally nothing else like SketchUp. So what is going to happen to Google Earth and all the rest?

JLS

[Charlie__V]

I've been out of pocket for a couple of days and not watching the wire (my bad) - but honestly - this is absolutely shocking to me, and to a lot of people who have been SU enthusiasts since day 1.

I don't want to say more until I can speak with my contacts at Google and interview somebody at Trimble, so let's just say I am greatly concerned for the product roadmap.

There is literally nothing else like SketchUp. So what is going to happen to Google Earth and all the rest?

JLS

Joe,
PLENTY of speculation .........and some live input from SU team insiders here...http://forums.sketchucation.com/view...p?f=15&t=44881


I remain positive.............mainly because........as you say.....there is nothing like SU.

Best,
Charlie

[jstoddard]

I've put out some RFIs today and hopefully we'll know a little more soon.

I consider SketchUp one of a very small club of truly game-changing software and I've always had a very keen interest in it for that reason alone - plus like so many others, I enjoy working with it.

Back when they were first getting going the @Last guys rented a kiosk from me at a residential section I produced for the "A/E/C Systems" tradeshow - it used to be a major technology show for the architectural/engineering commercial construction industry. They rolled up themselves with some displays they created themselves - as I remember it was the two original guys and their PR guy (who is still at Google) it was a total bootstrap effort but it wasn't long before they were jammed up 20-deep. The rest of the show was so-so. It was obvious to everyone there they had something very special. It was the first computer product I've ever seen that actually worked the way a non-computer user would work. Most hand-drawing artists "get" SketchUp right away. CAD users actually have a tougher time with it than pencil/sketchbook people.

Bottom line - it would be historic for a product that has developed such a gigantic and loyal affinity group - with a huge group of third-party developers - to be blown into oblivion by an acquisition gone bad. I think SketchUp has crossed that barrier and is "too big to fail" so to speak.

So I'm anxiously waiting for an interview with Trimble and etc. to see what they're really thinking about doing with it. Keep the faith.

JLS

[Dick Seibert]

Joe:

I hope those start-up guys got a billion dollars for it, if Instagram could get a billion they should have got 100 billion.

Reinforcing what you just said, I have an architect of many years, he's now 79 but a great artist. In the 70s I'd bring him in to a home with me to sell a new house, I can remember talking to a couple about what they wanted in a new home and giving them approximate costs, he's a very quiet guy and would just sit there appearing to be taking notes on a pad, all of a sudden he raised up his pad and he'd drawn a beautiful artist's sketch of exactly what they wanted. Eventfully he got arthritis so bad that he couldn't draw anymore, he found SketchUp and bought a rollerball mouse. He recently told me that at a Christmas dinner he told his family that if SketchUp had been available when he was young he'd have never gotten married.

[Alaskan Son]

Saw this in another forum. Looks like at least the free version will remain free.

http://arstechnica.com/getting-it-do...to-trimble.ars

[jstoddard]

Dick
I don't believe the original guys got a billion anythings (except maybe kudos for a job well done). I'm not sure of the exact original number but from what I've heard via the grapevine (unreliable and not fact-checked) Trimble paid roughly 9-10x what Google spent originally. That would make sense - when Google purchased it SketchUp was a unique architectural design utility with a lot of potential but not very many users relatively. Google gave it the gigantic cross-industry exposure, the hooks to Google Earth, the active component capability, etc etc.

JLS

[jstoddard]

I'm sure they'll keep it as-is for a while - but I'm a little more skeptical of the long-term prognosis. Remember @Last didn't have a free version of SketchUp - the "Freemium" model is something Google did - and they gave it a lot more features, more updates and more support resources than you'd normally ever get in that kind of tiered set-up - and all without ads (at least not in the core interface) -not even Google Adwords. That was a 'too good to be true' deal for users - but that's a lot for any company that isn't named Google to support for free so I'd expect some changes down the line. Maybe ad support. Maybe a user-supported version - who knows.

[ecarlson]

I just found out now. I doubt Trimble will consider the little guys like me. I hate this. Forget the free version. I was glad to pay the $495 Pro price and the $95 version upgrades. I'm dreading a nightmare scenario of the next version upgrade costing $500-$1000. I don't want to look for a new application. Not good Google!

[jstoddard]

@ecarlson
There's no indication that that's going to happen in the near-term, but honestly if you look at raw capability and the ability to extend the software... SketchUp+Layout is a $2500 package, not a $500 package.

The question is whether or not they'll try to make it a profit center- I seriously doubt it - it's not their core business. My guess is that the .skp platform is strategic to something else Trimble is doing and the base SU technology will be rolled into their mapping/GIS/GPS solutions, making those more valuable in that marketplace (which is now getting somewhat crowded - if you're Trimble) .

I'd be more worried that Trimble will do that roll-up, then kill the stand-alone SketchUp/Layout product altogether, because it's more of a nuisance to them to maintain the support, etc. than to just shutter it as a separate product line.

Don't laugh - this segment of the industry is very unpredictable. I've seen much more improbable things happen to equally high-profile CAD/Design software or other add-ins. There's a long list of mergers and acquisitions that have resulted in LESS good technology in the marketplace, not more.

JLS