SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 449 - eDrawings for Android
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eDrawings for Android:
This podcast covers the newly launched Android version of eDrawings discussing install, comparisons to the iOS launch, compatibility and overall impressions. Topics covered:
- Overview of the launch
- Android V1 feature set
- Differentiation between iOS and Android versions
- Speculation on a Pro version
- Overall impressions
As mentioned in a previous post, the demand from customers for an Android version of eDrawings was not going to just go away. SolidWorks has been slow to realize a few things about eDrawings for mobile, one of which was the need to have it on phones and not just tablets. This thought of it being only useful on a tablet seemed to be the reason ignoring Android as a viable platform was so strong and why it took so long for the Android version to ship.
Despite the iPad still being dominate in the tablet space, Android as a mobile platform is nearing 80% market share according to IDC, shipping 187 million, yes million, devices last quarter alone. SolidWorks recognizing that eDrawings for iPad was also needed on the iPhone seemed to be the catalyst for Android needing to be a priority.
As it's iOS sister, eDrawings for Android became an overnight, de facto standard for opening and viewing SolidWorks files on the platform (go figure?) but will move to a level of it's own once the Pro version comes out. No official word yet but last year the Pro version shipped around the launch of the next version of SolidWorks (October-ish?). ~Lou
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