Newsmaker: Adobe under construction

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customers use QuickTime. Many use Window Media Player. Not as many customers use Real--but we'll continue to support the Real Player. However, we will take advantage of the Flash Player--especially for Web sites. The lightness of it and the quality--it seems to be taking off. Plus, if you look at the installed base of Flash, it is greater than any of the other video players on the Web.

Do you see that as a differentiator for Adobe?
Chizen: A major differentiator for both Adobe and Macromedia. If you look at our (combined) reach and the proliferation of PDFs and Flash, our reach is greater than that of Microsoft because Microsoft is only on one platform.

Speaking of Microsoft, will you be running into each other a lot more?
Chizen: The reality is Microsoft and Adobe have been competing for a number of years. Go back 20 years to when Microsoft tried to do a PostScript competitor...and that was a total failure. But they tried.

The one that I remember intimately was PhotoDraw. It bundled in with Office and was designed to knock off Illustrator and Photoshop...a total failure. And now you have Digital Imaging Pro. They really haven't been that successful at it, but they haven't stopped trying.

As much as I prefer not to butt heads against Microsoft, they're a $40 billion software company that has a monopoly and unfortunately we do butt heads. What we try to do is to stay focused on what we do well.

As you prepare for your September planning meeting, does Google figure into your thinking as a possible rival down the road?
Chizen: Google is interesting. They are a potential competitor. They compete a little bit in the visual photo area, but the reality is where they're focused is much different than where we're focused. We're not focused on the lower end consumer, but they certainly have the resources and their business model is such that they don't have to charge the user for applications.

It's just a tough market.

Fortunately for Adobe, because our users have content and their need to manipulate that content and enhance that content is so great, they need client applications to do that. I also like to think that as broadband does become faster and faster and faster, Adobe will be able to provide those host-based applications in a much better way toward our customers than what Google is able to do. I think Google will be successful for the nonprofessional or the nonenthusiast that aspires to use the same tools as the professional, but as long as we do our job, I think we'll continue to be successful against Google. Today, we don't compete.

Will eBooks ever break out of its niche?
Chizen: Yes.

In our lifetime?
Chizen: Absolutely. I've always said the problem was the value proposition of the book versus what was being delivered electronically. What's been limiting has been the devices....knowing the hardware manufacturers, I would be willing to bet that two or three years from now, you will have a dynamite eBook device for $199 or less.

Let's talk about Apple Computer. What is the early word about moving Mac apps over to work on Intel-based systems? Not so easy?
Chizen: No, it's not...If you look at most testing cycles, that's three or four months until the product's out. You can't just turn a switch and get a MacTel product...and Steve knows that.

So when do you think Adobe will be ready to take Photoshop to MacTel?
Chizen: I haven't given a date yet...there's just a lot of work to do.

What's your opinion of where Microsoft is with Vista?
Chizen: It isn't quite there yet.

What do they still need to do?
Chizen: It's just not complete. I can't get into the features per se. Conceptually it's there, but when you play around with it, you know they just have a lot of work to do. If they expect to get it out in 2006, it means they have to ship in the summer to meet (manufacturer) requirements. There is not that much time between now and then. So, it's going to be really interesting to see what they deliver at the Professional Developers Conference in September.

If you look across the venture capital community, are you still seeing much interest in terms of the real heavy-duty software investment? Or is it pretty much over?
Chizen: Not in the traditional sense. I still see investments going into security, and I see some investment in low-end apps. I think Salesforce.com has proven to a lot of people that you don't need a $10 million solution to satisfy a simple problem. It's a much different world than it was five years ago. It's also harder to compete. It's not just about the product any longer. The big guys have gotten bigger and R&D budgets are big. It's just a tough market.  

More Newsmakers

[DoohanOK]

Well that sounds encouraging!

Should be a very good marriage between two very successful software companies. Forget taking on Microsoft - just keep making the great tools that both companies are currently doing. My only gripe really is the price can be quite steep - even when upgrading. But have pre-ordered Studio 8 and am looking to playing with that!

[MySchizoBuddy]

what about Acrylic

how come u did not ask him about Acrylic and Expression

[Earl Benser]

Maybe because....

... those are just garbage programs??????

He mentions it

He talks about "digital pro" which is Microsofts umpteenth attempt
at graphics.

[Earl Benser]

Nice thoughts....

... but meaningless. Adobe has already convinced me that they no
longer care about the basic consumer, so I have just about deleted
all Adobe programs from my Macs and PC's. And I won't be
updating to any new Adobe versions of the Macromedia products. I
just don't have the needs or time or income to spend learning my
way through the various overbloated Adobe programs.

[Stan Johnson]

I like the Merger except for some possibilities

I like the Merger except for some possibilities, such as which programs will survive and which will die or be sold-off. I like all of Adobe wares except for GoLive. I think GoLive is a crash-pig of an application. I could not say enough BAD things about it here. I think Adobe would be absolutely nuts to keep GoLive over Dreamweaver. Good luck Dreamweaver.

Eliminating Dreamweaver isn't what I'm worried about

For some strange reason, I have the feeling that Adobe won't be eliminating Dreamweaver from its lineup. Rather, I think they'll be supporting AND developing both side-by-side. I believe what they'll do is start to change the target audience of one of the applications, to more of a consumer/business audience, as was the case of InDesign and PageMaker.

What I'm worried about is Dreamweaver heading in the direction of the consumer/business audience versus the professional audience. I fear Adobe may do this as Dreamweaver has such a large user base already and is not already integrated into the "Creative Suite" style of UI and workflow.

Being an Adobe CS and Dreamweaver user, I fear Dreamweaver is heading in that direction, but if Adobe does this over several versions, truly learning from the Dreamweaver Team's experience and putting it into GoLive, I'm not sure this is necessarily a bad thing.

Of course I could be wrong and stop supporting Dreamweaver tomorrow, but that's my $0.02 anyhow.

He scares me.

He's a sales guy who is big on bottom line who has shown little allegiance to Adobe's customer base. I have used Adobe products for years and the my overall enthusiasm for the brand is very low. They have taken more of a Microsoft approach to marketing, develop based on a product release cycle. The only product they currently have that has show any recent innovation is InDesign because if it's competition with Quark. Once they have defeated Quark I'm expecting InDesign to go into an illustrator "add a whistle or bell and force an upgrade" mode. Adobe used to feel like a company that run by programers who were into creating innovative products it now feels like a company that is run by it's marketing department.

agreed

Much of what was said in your post applies to software
development as a whole, I believe. We are not only the
consumers but we are also the beta test group. For the efforts of
our beta test we are not rewarded with a bug-fix upgrade. No
we are rewarded with a "pay for it" upgrade which will have bugs
of its own. But we should not worry so much about that because
we can pay for the fixes in the next release... but then wait...

The only way to reverse this process is for the consumers to take
the control they have as a consumer. If no one buys the
upgrades the companies will be forced into making real
changes. In this day and age, and unfortunately our culture, it is
near impossible to get people to stop purchasing the latest bit
of technology, even when it is for their own good.

The problem is not so much the software company as it is the
consumer continuing to let them get away with it.

Climbing off my soapbox now.

A Very Sad Day

I kept hoping something would happen to break this merger, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear likely.

Now I'll have to find a replacement for Dreamweaver. The Adobe merger is the kiss of death for it. Any company that thinks posting PDFs on the web is a good idea can't possibly respect the best compliant authoring tool in the business.

Macromedia has always considered compliance with web standards and accessibility for persons with disability when crafting their products, while Adobe seems as if it couldn't care less about either issue.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before Adobe's influence spoils Dreamweaver. If I can't find a replacement, guess it's back to Notepad for me.

[Stan Johnson]

Don't worry about Dreamweaver too much yet

Don't worry about Dreamweaver too much yet. It has a greater user base and is a much more respected application than GoLive. It may very well replace GoLive as Adobe's main web authoring tool. It makes business sense to keep Dreamweaver and junk GoLive. Keep your fingers crossed!

Hire The Best and then....

The founder of Starbuck's, Howard Schultz has said that the secret to his success has been to hire the very best people he can find and then to stay out of their way.

Macromedia has demonstrated a superior understanding of the internet and the designers and developers who live and work there.
Adobe never really got past the print world to embrace the purely digital world.

Bruce, please take a page from Howard's book and now that you have hired the best people listen to them, empower them, and stay out of their way.

Knowing Your Customers

Adobe is very good at this. They know that the vast majority of their customers are professionals who write off the expense of their products as business expenses or they work for companies that write of those expenses. They do not have to worry about selling their product at a "consumer" price point. They simply need to be competetive with the competition, of which there will be less of now, therby allowing them to maintain there profit margins on their products.

Their products are primarily made for professionals who use their products in a production environment. We do not have the time to be continually "relearning" software that we have been using for years. To do anything other than to provide their products users with "tweaks" and "enhancements" would be a diservice to the very people that are Adobe's bread and butter customers.

Adobe has always paid very close attention to the needs of their core users and I am confident they will continue to do so. For those critics who fear that they have become complacent and are resting on their laurels you need to be reminded of a fundamental reality.

Adobes products are used by printhouses, publishers, TV studios, radio stations, movie studios, professional photographers, web developers, etc. etc. Their products are used all day long by many of these people, myself included. When there is such a large professional user base for your products, where people are earning their livelyhood based on the usability and reliabilty of your products, you better make damned sure that the vast majority of them are going to appreciate the changes that you make to their tools. Otherwise, you are just going to end up with a lot of PO'd customers who will start looking elsewhere for their tool sets.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it seems to be Adobe's approach and I and thousands of other professional users are pleased that they do so. I'm not saying their products are perfect, they aren't (Golive and Illustrator cases in point). But Adobe knows who there core customers are, they listen to what they want and need, and provide them with just enough improvements at a time to keep them satisfied and willing to keep coming back for more.

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