Engineers are hardly knocking down doors for mobile design tools, but responses to our coverage of the still-emerging apps category has shown a consistent, albeit slightly hesitant, interest. (See: Do Engineers Have Appetite for Mobile Apps?)
Yet while most of the early design tool apps have been for Apple iOS devices, there's a sign that some major Android releases are just around the corner. Late last month, Autodesk put out a call for beta testers to help start troubleshooting a working version of its mobile Design Review program for Android devices. The app, which lets users read, write, and markup DWG files, was released in mid-2011 for the Apple iPhone and iPad. Its release gave engineers a tool to view and collaborate on 2D and 3D drawings wherever they are in the field, unencumbered from the constraints of a laptop.
Autodesk is seeking beta testers to help work out the kinks in its upcoming Design Review mobile app for Android platforms.
Most of the vendors getting their feet wet with mobile design tool apps have come out with Apple iOS versions first, with promises of similar offerings for Android platforms over time. (See: 11 Top iPad Engineering Apps.) It's not so much that there's greater demand for mobile design tool apps on Apple platforms, rather it's that it's just so much easier to release for Apple first given that there are only two variants of iOS -- for iPhones and iPads -- versus the dozens of different permutations for Android.
Shanna Tellerman, Autodesk's product line manager for cloud services and applications, confirmed for us the challenge of testing for Android, which in part explains Autodesk's concerted effort to enlist its user base to help with the best test process. "The largest challenge with Android is the range of devices," she told us:
When designing an app, you need to take into consideration the different hardware, including details like the difference in screen resolutions. Customers have the same expectations that iOS customers do -- that the apps should work and should work well. In reality, Android apps are very hard to design to work well on every possible device. Specifically, for a design application like Design Review mobile, certain Android hardware is better equipped to handle the kinds of data our customers will be working with than others.
Tellerman says an Android version of Design Review mobile was the top requested feature among the Autodesk user community, which cemented the company's decision to reach out to users to assist in the beta test process. She says the beta program will give Autodesk specific feedback on features in the Android version, but will also allow users to report on how well the app performs on their particular Android devices.
Tellerman declined to specify when the final version of Design Review mobile for Android would be released. She says her company plans to keep the iOS and Android mobile offerings comparable for the time being, but she didn't rule out offering an app on one platform and not the other if Autodesk were able to take advantage of a specific capability on a specific platform.
In addition to this latest Android app, Autodesk also offers Android versions of AutoCAD WS, Inventor Publisher, SketchBook, and its Pixlr mobile apps.
I echo Beth's statements about Macs and Apple in general. I've been a user since the second Mac model, and never looked back. Back then, the user interface alternatives were truly awful, especially for non-programmers. If anyone remembers the CP/M operating system, which preceded DOS, they'll know what I mean. Even now, I'm not fond of Windows, either the UI or the accompanying hardware.
I agree, Alex. Apple is facing challenges on the price front. With Amazon selling the Kindle Fire for $199 (less than cost) and RIM reducing its BlackBerry PlayBooks to $299, Apple is under pressure on price. There are rumors that Apple will come out with a trimmed-down low-cost iPad.
I'm not so sure it's just Steve Jobs that gives Apple the aura of cool or helps justify its high price. I've been a Mac user for more than a decade now and between my work stuff and family gear, own a nice collection of laptops, desktops, iPhones, iPods, iTouches, iPads, and the list continues. Mac devices are just inherently sleeker, sexier, and far more intuitive to use and that is coming from someone who is definitely not a gadget freak. I'll pay a higher price any day for a Mac device that delivers an overall better user experience. As long as Apple can continue to pull that off, I think it will engage its share of devotees.
We haven't yet hit the point where tablets become commodities, like laptops. That will happen soon enough (perhaps within 2 years), and I believe Android will be largely responsible. Apple is going to have a hard time justifying the high price point of the iPad, especially with Steve Jobs no longer around to give it the aura of "cool," which has been such a key to its success (as has its apps ecosystem).
As mobile apps keep showing up in all corners of the tech world, from design review to apps that look at plant operations, the first release always seems to be Apple. Yet the Android operating system is on more smartphones than Apple's iOS. Apple has the edge on tablets, but that's likely to change as major products such as the Kindle Fire come out featuring the Android OS.
Open-source Android may ultimately be more useful to users than the proprietary iOS. Watch for Android to pass Apple on tablets and watch for app developers to introduce the Android OS apps before they release the iOS. Just a matter of time.
One of the really funny things about these new devices is that they have not really supplanted the older devices. I have been in the industry for a while (you can tell by the hair) and at one point all the talk was about convergence. I don't see it. I use a laptop, a smart phone and multiple desktops (for design, servers, etc.). My son, who I am always bemused by, has four devices. He has a phone, the iPad and at least one notebood computer. He also uses large desktops that the school has. Just before starting school, he bought a Kindle. This was the early one with the eInk. He uses that all the time becuase he reads a lot and the eInk is great for that. So, instead of having the one device that does it all, we have a bunch. I don't know where that leads us, but it is an interesting trend.
I do hear of engineers using their iPads on the shop floor to access drawings and other information. This is a good use.
Naperlou: I think it's funny your son offered to sell you his iPad. Gearing up for iPad3--I just saw reports this past week that there might be new versions coming out.
I agree with you on the laptop perference thing. Obviously, I do a ton of typing and I have much prefer my MacBook Pro laptop to the family iPad for doing anything. That said, my husband rarely uses his laptop any more and pretty much does all work-related stuff on a tablet, and he's in the communications business, which leans heavily on the keyboard.
In the end, I think it's all a matter of preference and comfort level. New generations of engineers like your son are going to be far more comfortable with mobile devices and well versed in how to use mobile design tools. The truth is the mobile devices and design tool apps won't supplant the full-blown desktop CAD and CAE tools, they will be variations and pieces of functionality that will supplant those applications when working in the field. And with today's increasingly mobile workforce, that is just the new reality of life.
Alex, this is being done, but I think it will take some time. At the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) they have been giving all incoming students an iPad for a couple or three years now. My son just started this year. He is studying aerospace egineering, so he is part of the target audience. It is interesting that IIT decided to do this with the iPads without having a particular application. They were just as interested in studying the student's use of the devices as anything else. My son is very aware of the software available on the device for engineers (I show him articles from Design News like the Slideshow: 11 Top iPad Engineering Apps). He was aware of many of them and had used them. Interestingly, he just offered to sell me his iPad.
I wonder about the tablet space in general. I am typing this on a laptop. I am perfectly happy with it (althogh it is dated). I do lots of typing. A tablet would not be great for me. I think most engineers are in the same boat. The tablet gives great mobility. On the other hand, there is a new class of notebooks, again following Apple's lead, called Ultrabooks. They are meant to compete with the MacBook Air. They give lots of the features of the tablet, are almost as light. So, who knows. It might be better to go slow on this. Another consideration is that Google has announced that it is bring out a tablet, and they will show everyone else how it's done (their words, more or less).
This is a fast evolving field, and it will be interesting to watch.
There is always some skepticism with any new technology out there. I think, by the end of 2012, mobile design apps will be old hat, and design engineers will be wondering how they ever lived without them.
The 3D printing revolution seems to have a knack for quickly moving technology ahead by way of collaborative effort and even a little friendly competition -- all of course in the name of scientific advancement.
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