UK CAD/CAM supplier and developer Engineering Computer Services Ltd of Lichfield, Staffordshire, has launched a new division dedicated to providing design applications on the Apple Macintosh. With a current turnover of around UKP8m, Engineering Computer reckons the new division will contribute UKP1m to its operations in the first year, growing to represent a 25% share of its business within three years’ time. It bases the prediction on Apple’s 14%, $500m share of the personal computer CAD/CAM market in 1988, which is set to rise to 23% by 1992, according to Dataquest. The company also has under wraps two distribution agreements with US software houses for CAD/CAM applications for the Macintosh, which it will reveal and start marketing in the near future. Although Engineering Computer Services does a significant amount of Unix business, using Hewlett-Packard/Apollo and Sun Microsystems hardware, it doesn’t believe that Apple’s A/UX Unix implementation will figure heavily in its plans for some considerable time. The company, which is 75% owned by Diploma Plc, currently has 70 employees.
