Autodesk today at Macworld Expo announced the availability of five native Mac OS X software products, signaling a dramatic change in Mac adoption with the creative and technical design markets for which it serves.
“We’re thrilled that Autodesk is expanding its Mac 2D and 3D software offerings for our creative professionals.” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.
Available Mac Products
While some products were previously announced for the Mac today Autodesk is unveiling Mac OS X support for Autodesk Mudbox 2009, Autodesk Toxik 2009, and Autodesk ImageModeler 2009 for the first time. Additional Mac products coming from Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment software division include Autodesk Maya 2009 and Autodesk Stitcher 2009.
Outside of the M&E division Autodesk makes a few other native Mac OS X products, most notably Autodesk SketchBook Pro (a product formerly belonging to Alias) and Autodesk MotionBuilder 2008 (edit. note: the 2008 version is one version behind but available for Mac users to purchase, future versions for the Mac are in the works).
“Given the growing adoption of Mac OS X and the production requirements of the Mac community, we’re excited to offer these premiere creative tools to Mac artists,” said Stig Gruman, Digital Entertainment Group vice president of Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Autodesk’s product offerings will empower artistic vision and provide Mac users with the tools to bring their creative ideas to life.”
As noted in this story yesterday, Autodesk’s announcements for Mac OS X signal a surging trend in Mac adoption and demand for Mac products from the world’s largest software developer of design software. With this major announcement, Autodesk is clearly signaling that it intends to fully meet that demand from its growing customers who prefer to work on Apple’s UNIX-based Mac OS X operating system. And this is a very exciting thing.