Hi everyone,
Being French, and having friends who worked within this company, I felt concerned and touched when I read this news in my magazine "Chasseur d'Images". I am a long time user as well, since the version 5, back in 2008...I hoped for a long time now that they could replace lightroom, as I am completely and definitely allergic to its UI and ergonomics.
As far as Business Decisions go, they wasted a lot of money with the DxO one, in the Intellectual Property of the connector used, and in the licensing from Apple. I never saw this camera in the field, and a basic marketing study would have told them that targeting apple users who were thought of willing to pay a premium to get better pictures was a mistake. The value proposition of Apple is one integrated product (which has always been in Apple DNA, without needing to buy something else), not two or three... The quality of the camera is not in question, it is very good, but so was the samsung NX1, brutally innovative in 2014 and barely equaled now 4 years later. The quality of the embedded camera in the iphones are increasing, and having to bring along another piece of gear is not practical. I am really not a Apple fan, but to be trivial I think that they tried to make a Apple product, with a PC mindset....
They should focus on their core business to strengthen their position, and now they might lack resources to do so. IMHO they are halfway of making a completely mature product. DxO PL is a fantastic piece of software, the light and exposition algorithm are top-notch, the Prime noise removal algorithm is great (beware of the tuning though), and no other soft can bring up shadows like DxO. The "clearview" is impressive too. But they lack serious colour management and ICC profile management. I didn't care before, but since I bought a second hand epson 7900 and some ink and paper, I focus on the colour management and keeping as much information as I can until the final data transmission to the printer driver. I found out that DxO use a in-house colour space for their processing, and you can't change it. This colour space is very close, if identical, to AdobeRGB. Good but not satisfactory since latest camera can capture more colours than AdobeRGB, and some large gamut printer (such as the epson 7900) have not tiny portions of their gamut outside Adobe RGB. You can save your work in Tiff16 bits with ProPhotoRGB out of DxO, but it is essentially AdobeRGB work save in the prophoto RGB colour space...useless. No big deal in real life, but intellectually limiting i think.
The print module is promising but not totally a finished product for me. A serious soft proofing approach would be a nice addition (comparing profiles and rendering for web, smartphones, papers...). Lightroom does not offer a satisfactory solution either as far as I know.
I would like to be able to digitally review, analyze, and import files. For me I really lack a serious editing software. I mean a serious review/selection and then catalog tool when you import tons of pictures. I want better analytic with the files : being able to measure the dynamic of the files, the acutance/definition, and select only the best one in a burst sequence for example.
For me they should focus on the software and productivity tools, and leverage their noise, light, exposition, clearview, and details/sharpening algorithm to the video segment. Develop a plugin for premiere or vegas, or a light app that can improve video taken with smartphones.
I don't think the solution will die, the product is too mature to be ditched, and has promising assets. But these assets have a limited lifespan...left alone, they won't be competitive anymore in a few months... They need to invest serious money in algorithms and AI. Simplify algorithms to use them in video and smartphones, expand their coverage outside the bayer matrix sensor family (welcome fuji, and other sensors, such as achromatic sensors like leica monochrom, or IQ3). It is not acceptable let down an entire part of the market. They should expand their market : down with the smartphones photo enhancing (maybe licence some tech with instagram...), and up with studio capabilities (better handling of Medium format raw files, offer tethered shooting capabilities which is no big deal to make). AI is a big subject too. Some friends of mine at Adobe are telling me their Sensei AI engine is really showing tremendous potential and they could let the competition miles behind in the next generation of software. But every software company needs to invest in AI, not only DxO.
If I win the national lottery, I would gladly buy the company (I am dreaming) !!
DxO people : stay strong and keep up the good work !