The Majority World and AutoCAD WS

There are around 6.92 billion people in the world.  A number that is nearly impossible to fathom.  All these people, all over the world need infrastructure.  Furthermore, they need the tools, such as the software, to create the designs that enable them to safely construct facilities such as houses, schools, water/waste water treatment systems, and roadways.

Autodesk and the rest of the world already know this.  Just look at all of the countries and continents that you can purchase Autodesk software in.  Judging from Google Insights, AutoCAD is much more popular in other regions in the world than it is in North America.

Last year, we wrote about AutoCAD WS and the novelty of the software.  To be honest, I was never really excited about AutoCAD WS when I first tried it.  Even though you could use keyboard shortcuts for commands in the web browser version, it was definitely not as responsive as an installed copy of AutoCAD.  I quickly dismissed it as not being design software but more of a tool to review drawings.  Recently though, I’ve been learning that time in the majority world is not viewed as the scarce resource that it is for me.  Having a tool such as AutoCAD WS for design worldwide could be a huge asset to everyone, even if it’s not as “fast” as an installed copy of AutoCAD.

Autodesk already has the international market in mind with the product as it supports a number of languages.  I feel like the main obstacle for a tool such as this to gain traction globally is marketing and training.  I’m sure that of the billions of people in the world, many of them would love the chance to draw their ideas if they only knew the software existed.