Adobe says profit on track

Software maker Adobe Systems said Tuesday that the company's earnings are on track for the current quarter.

In a mid-quarter conference call with financial analysts, Adobe stood by its previous estimates for revenue of $305 million to $325 billion and earnings per share of 24 cents to 27 cents for its second quarter, which ends May 31.

CEO Bruce Chizen said initial sales of Photoshop 7, the new version of the market-leading graphics-editing program, released earlier this month, were in line with expectations. But he said it was too early to tell how the program would fare in the market and how much it would boost other Adobe products aimed at graphics professionals. "Two weeks of data isn't an indicator of anything," he said.

Chizen also stood by targets for Adobe's InDesign page-layout software, which competes with market leader QuarkXPress, to account for more than half of all new sales in the market this year. "We're confident we're going to win," he said.

Chizen noted that Adobe expects to enter several new markets within the next year or so, including consumer products for organizing digital photos and authoring DVD video discs.

"Relative to many other companies in our business, Adobe is doing well," Chizen said. "We believe Adobe can be a 20 percent (annual) growth company after the economy recovers."