February 13, 2012
During a sales partner event last week I found and (and was given permission to blog) some more details about that 54% Delphi XE2 sales increase, mentioned in a press release last week.
During a sales partner event last week I found and (and was given permission to blog) some more details about that 54% Delphi XE2 sales increase, mentioned in a press release last week. This serves as a response to some of the critics that commented on the previous blog post.
First, the 54% increase in on sales of XE2 from the product announcement (that is September 2011 to December 2011), compared to the same period of the last year. That is, the months after XE and XE2 were introduced. The numbers includes Delphi, C++Builder, and RAD Studio. It is not a 54% increase on the yearly sales, but that have been going up very nicely anyway.
Second, the number is the increase in total revenues, but I was told that the increase in number of licences sold is very similar. This means the ratio of prefessional/enterprise sales are likely comparable (but this last is a personal observation for which I got no confirmation).
Third, since some people questioned the size of the licence revenues, I was suggested to blog that the overall revenues of Embarcadero are in the order of magnitude of a hundred million USD, and about half of it comes from the RAD Studio family of products. So you can do your math and see what the Delphi sale increase is worth. Which is a significant business...
posted by
marcocantu @ 9:44AM | 22 Comments
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22 Comments
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Awesome, this means that:
- they make about USD $50 million/year from RAD Studio
family products
- about USD $4 million/month in revenue
- they made about USD $2 million more somewhere
between September and December 2011
- they have more than enough resources to deliver
<extremelystrong>high quality products</extremelystrong>
- they can lower(if not eliminate) the price of
licenses for schools
-- I hope my math is correct --
"Embarcadero Technologies Grows Delphi and C++ by 54%
in 2011" -- seems extremely misleading to me at least
[!]
Can't wait for Delphi 2010 Service Pack 13 this year!
Comment by Dorin Duminica
[http://www.delphigeist.com]
on February 13, 11:05
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Dorin, I don't think your math is correct. And there
are also difference in sales from month to month. But
they are making some serious money from Delphi XE2.
Now I don't think this means they'll give away free
products, but I certainly hope they'll be investing
even more (new compiler, large improvements in
FireMonkey, more platforms, and so on). They claim the
54% increase is in XE2, of course before September the
product didn't exist. I won't say they are
misleading... but certainly they are not clear... and
this is why I asked for permission to post some more
details.
Not sure why you cannot avoid the ironic comments.
From Delphi 2010 to XE2 they've added tons of features
(including 2 new compilers), calling it a service pack
doesn't make much sense to me. It is true that there
are issues (and I certainly want to see them fixed),
but I wonder if you ever try some of the acclaimed
competing products, that are much worse when it comes
to quality.
Comment by Marco Cantu
[http://www.marcocantu.com]
on February 13, 11:19
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Dorin Duminica
[ - about USD $4 (4 000 000) million/month in revenue
]
If there are 300(at least) developers in RAD studio
team , and if one engineer is given 10000 $ a month
(at least)
4 000 000 - (10000 * 300) = 1 million
Is that enough to give free copies.
As we know Delphi is now in a good hand , but it still
needs to grow more.
Note : These calculations are only based on Dorin
Duminicas assumptions.
Sorry for insulting mathematics.
Comment by VRV on February 13, 12:54
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Macro I'm not claiming that my math is correct, I hope
I'm wrong but in the sense that I'm assuming less.
They should strongly consider luring "soon to be"
developers while they are in school, this will ensure the
future of the product itself, how can they attract
students if the teachers need to get license for every
student, it can get VERY expensive...
Sorry Marco, I can't help it regarding "service pack".
@VRV that's $1 million - TAX if I'm not mistaken...
'Is that enough to give free copies.'
I was referring strictly to schools(high school,
university, etc.), these people are going to ensure it's
future, so yes, I think it is more than enough to give
free copies.
Comment by Dorin Duminica
[http://www.delphigeist.com]
on February 13, 14:24
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
It doesn't look the more money Apple makes from iPad
and iPhone the more free ones they give away.
I'd invest the revenues in building an attractive
product for the price (features and quality), not
subsidizing it.
Schools have already academic licenses, and anyway
what languages are taught are often "fashion-driven".
Price alone is not a driver.
Should they also ask for free iPads and Macs to
develop with Delphi for them?
Comment by Luigi D. Sandon on February 13, 14:55
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
I think now Embarcadero has taken Delphi to live again
(it almost died in the Inprise days ...), is the moment
to gain the young people world: university, high school
and every place teaching programming to new developers.
Not just free school licences, also a serious campaign
in these field. IMHO, of course.
Comment by Tiago Ameller on February 13, 15:12
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Luigi D. Sandon you're comparing apples with water...
You can't compare a physical product with software, software
is written once and then copied multiple times while an ipad
can't be copied without adding cost to it.
On top of that, I'm not aware of special "offer" to schools
from Embarcadero(could be wrong here, but if you can
provide a link, please do).
I'm not trying to trash Embarcadero, they obviously made a
lot of improvements over the years, however if @VRV's
numbers are true, meaning they have 300 developers, then all
I can say is that "something is not cool in Denmark"!
Comment by Dorin Duminica
[http://www.delphigeist.com]
on February 13, 15:25
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Dorin Duminica Your arguments are correct ,but 4
million / month is still not enough to maintain a very
complex product like Delphi.
Comment by VRV on February 13, 15:48
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Most people here are developers, not sales persons (I
guess). Let’s build some cool things with Delphi;
that’s the only way Delphi will move forward. That’s
the only reason why Delphi didn’t die after the
Borland era (because nice things were built in
Delphi). Object Pascal in a broader sense is even
beyond Embarcadero or Borland...FreePascal and Lazarus
are good examples.
If at the end you don’t like or you don’t trust in the
power of Delphi, then move forward with other
languages or IDEs. That’s a valid choice as well.
I am trying to be neither cynical nor ironic. If I was
ironic (cynical), then I apologize.
I do like Delphi and I will make my best to build nice
things with it. I think that will help a little.
Comment by Yanniel
[http://www.yanniel.info/p/delphi-programming.html]
on February 13, 16:39
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Hi, i am George V. from Greece,
I have been using Delphi 3 to 6 for more than 15
years even after Borland/Inprise had almost killed
this magnificent product.
During the "years of darkness" Delphi developers
where almost exiled from the market, IT managers
where laughing when mentioning the devil word
"Delphi" and the vast community was shrinking and
shrinking and...
But silently some developers (like me) were still
developing apps despite the modern "sirens of
Odysseus". Don't ask me why...
After so many years, i am happy now having the brand
new Delphi XE2 in my hands and studying all changes
since Delphi6. It is a huge improvement and i believe
it really stands for what is and should be Delphi.
My point is what i think everyone who knew Delphi
from the beginning will be skeptical about.
Will EMB manage to do the big bang once again, or it
will SyUtils.Abort?
I think they are at the right way. Many webinars,
videos, new website, community and newsgroups re-
engaged, and now the 54%.
That is good, and as long as the community grows
again the question will be answered.
Have fun developing, because development is fun!
Comment by G.Vavoulogiannis
[http://g-vavoulogiannis.blogspot.com/]
on February 13, 18:24
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Goodness me, whatever do Embarcadero think they are
doing? Everyone knows there is no future in IDEs.
Delphi is supposed to be used as a cash-cow to milk
for funding spurious attemts to enter the enterprise
market, not re-invested in. Tsk.
Comment by Miss Management on February 13, 21:30
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
I think a lot of the arguments here are pointless.
Embarcadero will make more money if they sell more
licenses (which they seem to be doing). The best way
to make Delphi successful is to buy more licenses -
and to do this we (as Delphi developers) need to get
more (good) software to market so that we (or our
employers) can employ more staff and buy more
licenses.
I'm somewhat gambling that there is a need for new
developers to learn Delphi, I'm currently working part
time producing Movies to sell commercially (feel free
to buy my first one from my website LearnDelphi.tv).
I feel I've been doing my part over the years to
promote Delphi with my free content.
Marco, Bob Swart, and Cary Jensen have also been hard
at work producing educational materials (both free and
commercial), for which I'm very grateful - If you
haven't read many of these then you should invest a
bit of time and money in them (after my video of
course), as a small investment education now could pay
off big later on.
Anyway - that's my $0.02
Comment by Alister Christie
[http://learndelphi.tv]
on February 13, 21:46
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
I have built and enterprise level document management
application with GIS functionality with Delphi.
Everything, even the GIS functionality and Oracle
connections are self contained within a very small
exe.I have been programming for 20 years and with
Delphi since Delphi 2. I am very happy to hear Delphi
is doing well. I just don't understand why developers
would use anything else. Go Delphi!!! I am not
concerned about free stuff just stable stuff with a
good price point and that's what Embarcadero has been
doing for a few years now. Delphi Whopping Growth is
nothing but good news. During the dark days as was
mentioned by George V. from Greece I too refused to
use anything else. Once you dig into Delphi and
realize what can be done, Well if Delphi goes away I
stop programming and just become and Oracle DBA.
Congratulations keep up the good work
Comment by Keith Russell on February 13, 21:48
"You can't compare a physical product with software"?
Because software has no development costs? Because
you can't make cheap chinese workers build your
expensive products for a dime per hour? Because your
development cycle are shorter and you can use far
less "off-the-shelf" components developed elsewhere?
Because there are far fewer developers than phone
users? Because you have to factor piracy into your
losses as well? Running a software company is not
much different than running anything else. The idea
the software "must be free" because it is
not "physical" is pretty absurd.
Comment by Luigi D. Sandon on February 13, 21:48
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Luigi D,
Great post. You nailed it.
Comment by Steven Pacheco on February 14, 00:22
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
I perceive that many people have crystal ball, are
saying until how much an employee of embarcadero earns
and etc…
the important one is that the DELPHI improved and goes
better much more, this is what it matters!
Comment by Savério Vertoni
[http://saveriovertoni.wordpress.com]
on February 14, 00:33
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Delphi is far too expensive. I own 1,2,3,5,7,8,2010 and i'm now
using delphi only as a hobby. I simply can't afford the upgrade to
xe2. Delphi deserves to be more popular and the only way I can
see this happening is to get own to xcode levels. £29.99
Comment by Ksymeon on February 14, 00:34
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
the subject leaves values for the financial directors.
we go to speak of development, the Delphi xe2 is very
good, and goes to improve sufficiently!
Comment by Savério Vertoni
[http://saveriovertoni.wordpress.com]
on February 14, 00:42
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
Happy Birthday Delphi
Most of the Delphi Sellers and Delphi users are happy
because of XE2
What about those who are doing the both.
Comment by VRV on February 14, 09:31
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@Luigi D. Sandon
You're not getting my point for some reason...
I'm not saying "free" as in "free beer", I'm saying free
or very cheap for schools, it could be cheaper for
developers as well... rather than downloading it, a lot
would actually buy it for say $200 or so, but that's not
my problem...
The most of the "off-the-shelf" components cost money,
and are not cheap at all, however it does drastically
reduce your development time, but there are some which
only adds "shiny" look -> yuk!
Let's try something else:
- software: you write it, it costs you 200h, you want to
make say $50/h, then the price of the software needs to
be in such a way to cover your time and if possible get
your more, therefore:
> 200 x $50 = $10,000
if you manage to get your $10,000, either from selling
10,000 <huge>copies</huge> or by selling it to one
customer you've covered your expense, should you choose
to give it away for free from now on, it's your call.
- hardware(take precious apple for example): they create
prototype(maybe a dozen or even more...), then they have
the hardware manufacturer to pay + their employees,
therefore:
> [prototype(s) cost] + [hardware manufacturer, i.e.
foxconn] + [employees] -- I hope I'm not missing anything
else than tax --
> let's assume for second the total cost is $10,000 to
create 500 products, you sell everything and make your
$10,000, correct? now, if you want to sell more, you
have to "somehow", out of thin air!
If that's not a huge difference... I don't know what
is...
But don't worry, none of them would be in business if
they would not make enough money, how much is enough?
that's for them to decide.
Comment by Dorin Duminica
[http://www.delphigeist.com]
on February 14, 12:49
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
1) Most schools wouldn't use Delphi even if it was
free. Otherwise they would be already using
FPC/Lazarus everywhere, and it doesn't happen. Most
schools teach what they think is a mainstream
language (if they need to teach a foreign "human
language", do they usually teach English or Italian?
Why?) I wonder if the "poor school" lament is not
used by teachers needing a free copy of Delphi for
their own work... maybe using some skilled studends
as a cheap workforce...
2) Your computation of development costs is pretty
simplistic. Do you really believe that after sales
have repaid costs you can give software away for
free? Guess you fire your developers and staff and
sell everything else after a product is released,
because they still costs (and of course your company
needs profits).
Comment by Luigi D. Sandon on February 16, 10:53
Delphi Whopping 2011 Growth More Details
@VRV - Not 300 people in the RadStudio team and not at
this salary. 10k avg. (About -> ALT + TEAM -> view
picture)
I think the number (72Mio or 75 Mio.) does come from
Nicks comment on this blog - this very likely EMB 2010
in Summary including DS-Auditor sales.
I have my numbers worst case vs. best case. DB Tools
has been estimated to be 65-68 Mio by 2011, very
constant growth. 100 Mio from Wikipedia can be found
every year since 2007, more the goal. The bandwidth
for RadStudio is from 20. Mio to 28Mio imho. (the
numbers are ... over the thumb... not very reliable)
Not everyone at EMB is a senior developer, not every
employee is a developer and not everyone is S.F. S.F.
is expensive as my Hometown, maybe little cheaper. In
the Western World - income is very much the same ...
In every case, no need to worry about Delphi and no
need to worry about EMB, even in worst case. Since I
follow them (they have been listed at the NASDAQ) -
they can sell ... they had tremendous increases sometimes.
Mike
Comment by Michael Thuma on March 12, 17:03
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