Autodesk CEO and president Carl Bass seems somewhat flabbergasted over how iOS consumers are eating up Autodesk's SketchBook Mobile app. Now the company believes that there will come a time when Apple customers can make Avatar-like blockbuster movies on the iPad tablet.
"Something crazy is happening in the world of mobile telephone applications," Bass told Italian website Globes. "A year ago, some of our guys began a project unauthorized by management, in which they adapted the software to work with the iPhone. We didn't believe that anyone would want to use it, but we were wrong. There is big use."
Autodesk has been around for a long time, offering well-known platforms including AutoCAD, Maya, 3ds Max and many others. The company also provides iOS version including AutoCAD WS, Inventor Publisher Mobile Viewer, Fluid FX, and SketchBook Mobile. While Bass didn't provide numbers regarding the SketchBook app, he said it was a "big hit."
"We've been in the business for 28 years, and 10-12 million copies of our software have been purchased to date," Bass said. "That's a lot, but it's only an average of 11 million over all the years, and all of a sudden half a million people bought the software at the application store. This was the cheapest project we ever did, which reached more people than any other project. It surprised me."
So does that mean the company is working to bring mobile versions of Maya and 3ds Max for the iOS platform? "Very soon, users will be able to sit with an iPad at home at make a movie like Avatar," he said.
