Socialcam is a mobile app that allows for video capture, editing and sharing. The deal is set to close in Autodesk’s third quarter of fiscal 2013 which ends on October 31, 2012.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120717005592/en/Autodesk-Signs-Agreement-Acquire-Socialcam
Socialcam is a small business (only 4 employees) that spun off of Justin.tv the prior year. It has been able to receive funding and is now being purchased by Autodesk.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/30/socialcam-angel-funding-investors/
Why would Autodesk want a mobile app that creates and edits videos? Why did they purchase Pixlr? For the same reasons they are making several mobile app versions of their own software and giving them all away for free. This is the consumerification of Autodesk. Autodesk has been producing high end software that, let’s face it, is very expensive. The average person can’t afford to purchase AutoCAD, let alone one of their design suites. Even if they could, why would they? Consumers make up a very large audience that Autodesk wasn’t reaching. Now Autodesk is making an effort to reach out to consumers. They have saturated the professional design market, the SFx market, and now they want the consumer market. Besides, Socialcam can always be marketed to professionals as well. How useful would it be to go to the job site, record an inspection video, edit it there and send it back to the client, office, approving agency, etc.? Very.
I’m interested in seeing how Autodesk uses this soon to be acquisition.
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