Hello Everyone,
Big News is coming soon! I think about this a lot and it is distracting. My family wonders where my mind is sometimes. I can be ‘at work’ while at breakfast. My wife is used to it, and I try to be present as much as possible, but right now it is difficult.
We are moving forward in many ways here at BriTon Leap: Last week we moved into a new office. I can’t believe 3 years passed at the last one. While it was a great location, it was a bit of a cave, so now we’re in some better digs. Lots of light and several windows that actually open!
And we’re about to release the main Embrilliance product. This will be for both Mac and Windows. I have some decisions to make with regard to it; Name, Price and Features.
What we’ve done with the Embrilliance architecture has been a tremendous amount of work, encompassing the last three years efforts of myself and the team here. And there is a lot under the hood. Much of it has to do with products we’ll release in conjunction with Embrilliance next year. But what about now? What are you going to get? When will you get it, and how much will you have to pay?
Over the last 20 years I’ve studied embroiderers. And although we’re different people, the processes at some level are always the same. And that is the level I wanted to achieve with this product launch. What are those features that virually ALL embroiderers want? What is the Lowest Common Denominator? Well, in a nutshell…
Merge/Color/Re-Size/Letter/Stitch
I’ll expand that list a little bit, but please remember, I know there are other features wanted by many users. This is my list for ALL users.
- Open designs from virtually any format.
- Save for your machine’s format. (Conversion)
- Find designs scattered around your computer, even in zips.
- Merge designs together to form scenes.
- Colorize Designs with real thread colors, or switch thread brands.
- Size designs with stitch recalculation.
- Rotate, Mirror, Center and Align.
- Print real-size templates for accurate placement.
- Add Lettering. (Multi-line, Monograms, and Circle Text)
- Save a working file so that changes can be made later.
- Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo. (All the normal things you’d expect from a modern program.)
Some features I knew you’d want, so they’re in as well:
- When merging designs, fix up the overlapped areas automatically.
- Automatically check for updates.
- Real Mac OSX, Windows 32 and Windows 64 bit versions.
Some features you don’t know you want, but will:
- Use designs that are Interactive to create professional results.
- Use DRM (Digital Rights Management) to demo designs before you buy them.
- Have the program itself tie in to an online community that makes it easy to share designs and ideas.
Next most importantly, since you already spent a bundle on 4D/5D/5.0/6.0/PED which you’ve never fully mastered:
- Make this thing ridiculously EASY to use.
- Make it inexpensive.
- Give me videos, tutorials, demos, and a manual that is written in plain language!
As to Price, I’ve had some input from the sales agencies around the world. They all have the same dilemma; It needs to be priced well below what it’s actually worth, because you’ve already been stuck with things that don’t live up to the promises of a big price tag. This needs to be so inexpensive that it can become an industry-wide, world-wide phenomenon.
It needs to have ridiculous value.
For instance, most OWNERS of 4D/5D (or their competitors) do no more than I’ve outlined above. And they spent like $2000 for it.
This product, if we’re to sell it to everybody, needs to be priced at around $150.
But if we price it that low, it really DOES need to sell to EVERYBODY!
So that’s Price and Features. Now about the Name. Embrilliance is the new brand, so for a name, I’m thinking:
Embrilliance Essentials.
Yes, there will be additional features sold separately (and yes, including digitizing).
But this program, with its intention as I’ve outlined, what else could it be called?
When?
Oh, when!
Please tell us!
We want to go live with the product in the next week. We will run a Beta version of the Mac product, but it will be available for Christmas.
In fact, please consider telling Dear Spouse that your Christmas gift is already chosen. What a relief for them! And for those testers who help us out, we have a special Christmas present coming for you!
I’m sure you’ll all have comments. Please add them on!
Regards,
-Brian