AlexandreJ wrote:

This is a huge decision here, but I'm sure many people are waiting for a standalone Autopano Tour product ( at least, we found out that this was a really high demand ). That's why we decided to split the next Autopano Giga into separated products.

As you know, I've always felt that APT should have been available as a separate product, although until V1.1 beta 7 it probably didn't offer sufficient functionality to be a viable competitive standalone product. There will I think be those wedded to other stitchers who nonetheless may well like to use APT.

There will be 2 brands in Autopano Pro / Giga series ( Stitching Products ) :

* Autopano Pro and Autopano Giga. The new Autopano Giga will no longer contain Autopano Tour.
So consider now the next Autopano Giga as an extended version of Autopano Pro and only that.
BTW : the alpha 1 of Autopano Giga changelog doesn't reflect all the new features that will be inside ( there are still some unannounced features for APG 2.5 ).

This then begs another set of questions - how precisely will APP and APG 2.5 be differentiated once APT is no longer bundled with APG?

There will also be 2 versions of Autopano Tour ( Virtual Tour products ) : A standard version and a pro version.
The pro version is quite the same as the current 1.1 beta 9, plus some new features concerning virtual tour styles.
The standard is like the pro version but without multimedia support, you will only have 3 virtual tour styles, and you won't have access to the XML file. The good news is that you will still have multiresolution export.

So when you say 'no multimedia support' does that mean no MP3 audio and no Flash video FLV; I presume that where you can currently use SWF files - as say Hotspot properties Link/Object or Display/Object you will still be able to do so?

What are 'virtual tour styles' - is this something new we have not seen yet or something already there that I do not recognise by that term?

A very wise decision to retain multi-res output in the standard version I think.

Of course, there will be upgrade paths for the separation of our product lineup.

In short, an Autopano Giga customer without a krpano license will get the Autopano Giga 2.5 plus a license of Autopano Tour standard for free, a customer of Autopano Giga + KRPano license will get an Autopano Giga 2.5 + Autopano Tour pro for free.

Does this mean in future, after the separation, that APT functionality in both Standard and Pro versions will be quite independent of possession of a krpano licence? 

If so that presumably means no access to krpano tools without purchasing a krpano licence?

I will not comment on any questions about prices of the new products yet. This will come with the real release.

Although in the short term this won't affect me it seems, but I hope you will end up with highly competitive pricing for both Pro and Standard versions of APT, and of course for APP and APG 2.5.

Might you consider offering some special pricing for bundles of APP/APG 2.5 and APT standard/Pro?