Why Apple Should Buy Adobe
The rumors of Adobe being bought by Apple come up every so often. Apple could easily afford such a purchase and the results would be interesting. I would love to see Adobe restructured by a company like Apple. Adobe has many applications that are the gold standard but it seems to lack focus. These are my thoughts on what Apple could do with Adobe’s biggest apps and make everyone’s life a lot easier.
Video
Adobe’s video market could be trimmed down. Anything that can already be done in Final Cut Studio should be gone, including Premiere and Soundbooth. I’m not sure if After Effects would even be worth it in the end. Most believe that Final Cut is a very nice video suite on the Mac platform and in the PC world, AVID holds the crown. Why is a program like Premiere needed? It’s not quite AVID but way better than Windows Movie Maker. Now throw Sony Vegas in there and it’s starting to get crowded. Apple could create Final Cut for the PC or forget about them altogether. This would come down to money in the long run. I personally don’t think Apple needs to worry about the PC side unless they are going to legitimately compete against AVID for dominance.
Design
Photoshop and Illustrator go hand in hand with Apple. The general public thinks of Apple when Photoshop is mentioned and vice versa. This is known as one of Apple’s strongest markets. Most believe that these design apps run better on a Mac but as we know, Adobe is slow in keeping these flagship apps on the cutting edge. Apple could force them to be designed for the latest and greatest environments. While they’re at it, stop releasing new versions every year that don’t have any significant improvements. Adobe needs the money to keep rolling in through yearly revisions but Apple wouldn’t have this problem. Make a new version when real features are created. In an educational environment, we are forced to upgrade every year because the textbooks only cover the newest versions. This puts a large strain on software budgets.
Documents
Acrobat should also be restructured and brought back to its core purpose. Every other week we hear of an exploit in PDF’s and it’s because they don’t do the simple task they were conceived to do. Strip out all the extra junk and just make PDF’s do what they need to do. Reader should be killed for the Mac OS also, Preview is way quicker and does the job just fine.
Flash
Then there’s the elephant in the room, Flash. Oh my dear old friend, you were once so cool. Animations, games, crazy navigation menus and long site intros were such a treat. Now I have grown bored with you.
The problem is that Flash is so ubiquitous with the web that it can’t just be tossed out into the street. Apple would need to clean it up significantly and keep it around until HTML5 took over. They should only provide security fixes but no new features. This would allow it a peaceful death.
Adobe has so many products that it’s kind of ridiculous. Most of them could either be worked into existing Apple products or forgotten forever. If Apple did purchase Adobe, what about the PC side of Adobe’s business? They would have to crunch the numbers to see what products are worth the extra cost of development, but Apple could really limit what’s available for Windows. Whether that would that be a good or bad thing, I’m not really sure. In Apple’s mind, if it sells more Macs then it’s worth doing.
I believe Apple could really improve Adobe’s products and make them more reliable than they ever have been. It would end the grudge that they have against each other and hopefully get applications like Acrobat and Flash back to their roots. Adding useless features just to sell a different version every year will not win you any fans. Make it a worthwhile upgrade or inexpensive and I will gladly support you.
I always felt from a strategic standpoint
A) streamling their product line
B) kill anything not making money
C) 64-bit, dual-core and cocoa everything
D) make flash full h.264 and full standards to work on any device
E) Stop developing software for windows.
E is risky but apple is in the business of selling hardware. A bold move that may pay off big time for apple.
So Apple should start ignoring the vast majority of their market for iPhones? Because most iPhone and iPod users are PC users, chum; the iPhone wouldn’t be very big at all if you needed to buy a mac to use it.
I disagree with E – simply because Apple would have the unique advantage of shaping what could be the standards of Windows software. Remember that iTunes is successful on Windows machines too (perhaps Safari is a bad example). Not every designer and video editor is a Mac user (I know… crazy, right?!) because the reality is no matter how inferior the computers are, businesses still use PCs because it keeps costs down with cheaper hardware and less training.
Either way, I don’t believe Adobe is for sale, but if Apple did buy it, I’d be happy because then I wouldn’t have to choose between Aperature and Lightroom, or Final Cut v Premiere, because Apple would get rid of the inferior product and sell the better one.
Before you say I’m a total idiot, I never said I’m some seasoned CEO w/ an MBA from Stanford.
I’m just a dude that was trying to think creatively.
E? No, no.
Just lower the price for Mac users to $200 for Photoshop, et al, and leave the Windows version as it is.
I’m just a dude who plays a dude pretending to be another dude.
Driveby comment:
E) Stop developing software for windows
That’s like 90% of Adobe’s revenue. That’s some real strategery!
Combine that with B) kill anything not making money, and you’ve got a recipe for real success!
Nevermind that:
1. Hostile takeover of Adobe is virtually impossible due to poison pill provisions.
2. Adobe’s shareholders wouldn’t agree to any sale that will harm their value.
You got an MBA from Stanford?
Well said!
By dismissing Acrobat in one short paragraph, you’re showing a complete misunderstanding of what Adobe is all about. Their market for Acrobat meets or exceeds their market for the entire Creative Suite.
There are products like Live Cycle and other PDF based information management tools that don’t even have names for the retail market. Things that as a Business Development Manager with an Adobe Gold Partner-level company that I couldn’t even sell to my clients.
Used so widely in business and government markets, on untold numbers of PCs worldwide, PDF is a very powerful tool for storing, capturing and managing information. Online forms that submit their contents back into a database, documents that contain live 3D models. High-resolution print-ready artwork for magazines and catalogues.
There is a lot more to PDF than you realise.
Having said all that, yes, the Adobe Reader can be a pain, and having it install it’s web plugins for Safari is annoying, but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be done with PDFs and Adobe is all about selling the tools that enable this.
I agree with Kai, PDF is the most valuable thing Adobe has. Forget saving Flash, it would take to much money, the second gem for Apple would be to kill Flash for good. Maybe they could sell of the creative suite or create a child company like Claris/FileMaker.
the bit about preview renders this kind of pointless. Preview is a lot faster than acrobat reader. and pages can export to PDF, so there really isnt a need for acrobat at all.
Sounds like instead of doing something great with Adobe and their products, you pretty well want Apple to kill Adobe.
Yep. take whatever worthwhile and incorporate it inot your own products, then kill it. Microsoft Made millions doing this.
Why not.
Adobe did this to the greatest vector drawing program out there….Freehand!
What’s good for the goose…
I think this is ridiculous! When you put everything in the hands of one entity you give them the power to say, as Quark once did, take it or leave it. No tech support, no concern with public demand, no realistic upgrades. That is just to name a few of the problems.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely! This doesn’t just apply to dictators.
Maybe I was harsh. Competition is good. As you compare one product against another you see redundancies. Your comparisons are interesting.
I work on both the Mac and the PC, and have found the ability to go back and forth using the same programs on both. This is valuable, as I design packaging, catalogs, circulars, and other print media on the Mac. I use the PC to create web sites, because most of the world in on a PC. Same images and graphics on different platforms has been an incredible advancement.
yes just like: final cut, logic, & shake all bought form others. i was especially sad when they bought emagic GmbH hw sw the german company that made logic and its components along with hardware. sad they took out all the hardware and the xs key + now everythign is pre made in logic (i like the old days when i had to do everything from scratch, and actually learn stuff) . even a cave man can make music these days. (especially apple fan boys)
so if apple buys adobe, they will have it all. apple will be next Microsoft.
see. apple has gone so streamline now its insane. people we need to think about quality over quantity. less = more.
What the hell’s happening here, am I reading an Aldous Huxley / George Orwell book? I don’t want everyone to buy up everyone else, what about good old choice :( I’d argue that; before there were two, Macromedia and Adobe, and Flash was good and exciting, then there was one, Adobe, and now it’s [Flash] been stagnated and turned into everything and nothing because of massive board meetings and crappy conglomerate direction, no doubt.
Usually I’d be critisied for being an optimist towards the great computer maker, but no mé gusta what Apple are going with all this. I liked an Apple that created partnerships / competition, not an awe of consumption.
If Apple indeed bought up Adobe I’d have fear. I’d be the first to say it’s a bad, becuase (using photoshop as an example):
- It would turn into an iPhoto with big buttons and auto-red eye remover for dummies all over the place
- Employers would (think they) want ‘certified’ Apple PS users. Don’t like.
- My PC friends would hate me for my computer vendor of choice stealing PS
- etc.
Anyhow, Adobe, get your act together and make good software still and don’t be bullied.
Drop After Effects? You. Are. Crazy.
Agreed. I would have expected a little due diligence before dropping a comment like that. After Effects is widely used in film, broadcast, and a number of other industries. It is the standard that other compositing programs are measured by. Dropping that app would be catastrophic for many business and individuals.
I think a Apple-Adobe takeover would be interesting, but some of the assumptions here indicate the author has a lack of experience in using any of the applications mentioned, or the innovations that come along with the different program upgrades.
You want another example of lack of innovation in upgrades? What was so grand about Snow Leopard?
Now that I think about it, I’d actually hate to have Apple mess with Adobe. How long was it before Aperture was finally upgraded?
haha, so true.
I was scratching my head about this post until I got to the After Effects line. Omigod. What exactly does Apple or anyone in the industry have to replace AE? Nada. Hollywood by itself would lose their collective minds. If you just hate Adobe, say so. But I don’t want you making corporate decisions that shear an entire market for no good reason.
As soon as I read, “I’m not sure if After Effects would even be worth it in the end” …I immediately dismissed this editorial.
I’m not saying that dropping After Effects would be a great idea, but from some of the comments posted here, I’m betting some haven’t used recent versions of Motion. It wasn’t a viable replacement initially, but it certainly is now. This isn’t just my opinion, other third party reviews have indicated as much.
A very amusing article, maybe you should write more satire?
I think I grinned a bit too much, too, to take it seriously.
With respect, I think the author is showing their narrow experience in some key areas. Just because one person doesn’t use (or see much use) of products such as Premier, Acrobat, or After Effects doesn’t mean that there’s not a whole world out there that doesn’t use them more than the entry-level crowd.
Yes, some products have problems with forward momentum but in many regards you’re comparing products of different strata – consumer, prosumer, and professional. I’m sure most college kids think Final Cut is the big stick but Avid, PC or not, is really the production workhorse in major studios everywhere. It’s not a platform distinction it’s an industry standard tool distinction.
I use FCP, yes, but that doesn’t mean I’d try to pass it off as having a larger share in the professional world than it does.
Acrobat – there simply isn’t another contender.
Flash – it’s more than just games. There’s an entire advertising revenue empire built around it. HTML5 doesn’t address the entire spectrum that Flash is used in.
I think one needs to dig a bit deeper (me included) but I know enough to know this article is far too dismissive to be taken seriously.
Agreed!
This is the most ridiculous blog post I’ve seen in a while. I don’t know if you’re just superficial or blinded by fanboyism…
Trust me, as product manager you’re worth zero, stick to blogging (about something else).
Kill AE? Really? HTML5 being a substitute of Flash? In which alternate reality?
Adobe is a LOT more than just the Creative Suite. And suggesting that the company should drop their PC market is just insane, OSX isn’t nearly as big in any country other than the US, this would mean to every extent and purpose killing the product line.
Honestly, this post is for the posterity to laugh at.
I agree with Luca. The writer displays a real lack insight into the value Adobe brings to users around the world. So are we suppose to buy the fact that because Apple practices predatory practices… such as fencing off the sandbox on the iPhone and iPad (blocking things like Flash)… that HTML 5 is the solution to expanding media needs on the web. For anyone with real experience with any flavor of available web markup languages, such as XHTML, HTML, and SVG make it easy to understand that Apple’s hyper focus on things like HTML 5 instead allowing for the use of Flash is really about protective fencing of a critical market or family of products (i.e. Mac OS and required hardware) rather than a promotion of new standards that better the internet community. There is a need for Web HTML content that is accessible and rich media formats or rich internet applications and in the case of rich media standardized playback is a critical requirement. This is where offerings like PDF, and Flash neutralize all the platform inconsistency and interoperability problems.
As other writers have noted the Mac OS user audience is a blip on the radar in comparison to other platforms. So it silly to continue to entertain enduring Apple vs. Microsoft war for dominance… and aggravating to knowledgeable reader to see the writer employing a collection of generalizations that amount to some illustration of Apple having Adobe as a arrow in its quiver. Nothing could be further from the truth… Apple became a closed ecosystem when Jobs killed the Mac Clone offerings and with that reconfirmed that Apple’s focus with hardware. On the other hand Adobe is software focused and platform neutral. Apple pioneered the concept of Rich Internet Applications… transforming the original Flash interactive media utility into a real application development platform and delivery method (free from OS trappings. Microsoft lures people into its ecosystem with ubiquitous Word Processor, Presentation tool and Spreadsheet apps and Apple lure people into its ecosystem with a closed an clean unified product offering (software + hardware… along with thins like keynote and iTunes). Apple provides it base offering as freebies and then supplies rich development and design tools that make creation a joy (rather than a dread). The real movement in technology right now is hardware neutrality and cloud based computing, and from this vantage point Adobe carries more weight than Apple. New products from Adobe like Air really deliver in this hardware neutral space and stand notions of hardware and operating systems on their head… the same application can run on Mac, Windows, or Linux.
Did you read the first paragraph?
Apparently not.
The article is just speculation. A what if piece.
Claim down and take your Valium and kiss your picture of that worthless Shantanu Narayen!
P.S. Flash WILL be gone in a couple years. Apple wags the dog, not Adobe. Adobe is a follower!
This question comes up frequently. MacDailyNews hinted at it two years ago. I answered the question then, and believe that answer is still valid today: http://bit.ly/cyNZ3k
Are you absolutely out of your mind?
What you are suggesting is clearly one of my worst nightmares. Adobe is a fantastic bastian of innovative application development and constantly branching (while integrating) their products in order to cater to the multifaceted nature of communication design and multimedia. They are also well on their way to making and utilising open source models to great potential. If you for one minute believe that Apple could BETTER Adobe through it’s singular mindless focus, closed development, and dumbed down attitude to the provision of technology – you’re DEAD WRONG. Also, have you forgotten that you don’t live in a Mac only world? While some of us own a few Apple products for their industrial design and some neat applications, we have PC’s for the bulk of our computing – especially in corporate environments, and Apple would do an appaling job of maintaining the support and direction of Adobe’s interests – which are greater than the CS suite that you seem so hell bent on focusing on as well might i add.
Narrow minded, laughable, and terribly misinformed. Please educate yourself and leave Adobe well alone.
The last thing Apple needs is to acquire a company loaded with slow, bloated overpriced software suites.
The last thing Adobe wants to do is be bought by Apple and have them clean house and changing every aspect of their core business. Adobe doesn’t seem to like change very much. They prefer the status quo and slapping on a few features into their software every year.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurn ;-) He he
Apple buy Adobe….HELL NO. Flash is going bye bye thanks to HTML 5, Apple can and does design better design tools (premier vs finalcutpro). There is nothing here for Apple. Apple has 40 billion dollars in the bank, they can create something as forward thinking as the original mac and apple lazer printer was in 1984.
I can’t wait to buy my Breaburn wearable computer in 2012, it records everything I see with HD quality, gives me 24/7 access to the internet, creates augmented reality when I want it to and monitors my health….no, no, you’re right, instead Apple should spend the money on mergers and acquisitions (which don’t work 75% of the time, largely because of the multiple collisions of corperate culture, finance, development etc).
What a laugh. Apple buy a Adobe and shut down Flash the next day. I could see all those Flash fanboys wailing and crying about Flash’s relevance to the web. Of course, it’s possible that Apple could redesign Flash so it isn’t bloated, slow and vulnerable. Nahhh. Just get rid of it and let HTML5 proceed at a faster pace. Too bad it won’t happen, but it is a fun dream. Those iPhone competitor companies would then have to shut their pieholes about them supporting Flash and the iPhone doesn’t.
Adobe and all their products are a big steaming pile of you know what. This makes sense since Adobe has their head so far up corporate America’s ass that how could they produce anything else?
I’ve used them *all* since the very first version of each and all the precursors that Adobe bought up and ruined in their own special way as well. They are junk, and the codebase is junk. They use a Windows development environment and pretty much none of their products even run half-assed on the Mac anymore.
So … you’re arguing that Apple should buy this pile of poo, and spend billions polishing the turd a la Microsoft … why again?
It just doesn’t make sense. Adobe has zero technology and zero patents or code that would be useful to Apple. They would have to rewrite every single application from scratch with Cocoa, and then probably somehow support windows versions because dumping them would just create competitors. Why, why, why?
Better to buy Pixelmator and blow Photoshop out of the water within two revisions. It’s already *almost* as good even with just the two guys working on it.
Agree. What Adobe needs is real competition. Improve Pixelmator or Acorn will sure give Adobe some pressure.
When Pixelmator gets “layer styles” Photoshop is going bye bye !!!
They way you put things in this post make no sense. Why should Apple spent a minimum of $20 billions (adobe market cap is over $18b and we know companies sells at a premium) for Adobe so it could just take part of Adobe and kill the rest.
It make no sense. But after reading your ideas for After Effects, Acrobat and the PC business its clear to me that you just write this to meet a deadline on a post or you are not very smart from a business standpoint.
Can’t believe I just wasted time reading this crap. Apple fanboys are the worst!
Says the guy reading a site dedicated solely to Apple…
Why would you actively come to an Apple dedicated site, and comment that you don’t like Apple fanboys.
You remind me of a republican that fights for family values, and fights against gay marriage only to be found cheating on his ‘sacred union’ with a group of gay men.
Moron.
Because it’s listed on TechCrunch’s front page.
*GigaOM rather
The people running this site do realize that it comes with the package on GigaOM, right? I’ve seen a few comments that indicate to the effect of “If you’re not a Mac fan, GTFO!”
Why aren’t you asking the GigaOM folks to pull you from the RSS feed and their homepage if you’re so offended by people who aren’t part of the Cult of Steve?
Man-0-man…
as a graphic designer what I would not give to kill Creative Suite off all Windows machine!
Oh how I do miss the days when adobe products were ONLY available on Macs!
Oh please. Design software (Photoshop etc) run just as fine on a PC as on a Mac. I used CS4 every day in my job and I am using a PC at work. You want Apple to kill CS on the PC and force us PC designers to buy Macs (which I don’t like, btw)?? lol
no man… I want all my idiot clients who think they are designers to STOP!
After Effects is not worth it???!?! … just because you may have never used it, doesn’t make it worthless. It is probably the best and the easiest application for creating Motion Graphics!!
And I seriously hate designers who build their aesthetic sense around Apple computers and products. Why shouldn’t the Creative Suite be available to people who use PCs? Not every designer in the world can afford a Macbook Pro or an IMac.
“Quartz does not use Postscript as its internal graphics representation language. Instead, it uses Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) standard which is a superset of Adobe Postscript. PDF has several advantages over Postscript, including better color management, internal compression, font independence, and interactivity. (Check out the PDF specs for more information.) PDF is also is a free and open standard, which saves Apple from paying Postscript licensing fees.”
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/1q00/macos-x-gui/macos-x-gui-4.html
Not gonna happen. Apple likes a lean and mean fighting form — an Adobe acquisition would be way too distracting. Already too much going on and Jobs knows it.
What as if Adobe supports their products? Ever try and call Adobe for support? They did make great products now they just abuse their installed base.
Dreamweaver the industry standard for web development is a total disgrace!
They need something and Apple could not do worse!
I’ve been moaning about this for weeks! I work with Adobe products 20 hours-a-day and I can’t think of anything better than Apple buying them. They have too many products and their lack of competition has allowed them to become arrogant and slowed innovation. Their programs have become bloated and slow even on the newest Apple hardware.
At the least, I wish Adobe would condense (not eliminate) their software programs. Example: Flash, Fireworks and Shockwave could be rolled into Dreamweaver; Illustrator could be rolled into InDesign, etc. I believe Apple would streamline Adobe into a much more user friendly, profitable company while giving us truly innovative products.
I see this as only a complete win for Apple. They could truly make these programs scream on their hardware and corner the market once again for creative professionals.
Amusing article.
However, for the same price as Adobe, Apple can buy controlling interest in Sony. Now THAT is a better buy.
Not only would they have Sony electronics, cameras, computers, and Ericson cell phones but they would also get Columbia pictures and music. Apple would become one of the big movie studios and one of the big music studios.
They can shape up Sony in their image. And they would have a great collection of movies for the iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV and Macs.
WOW!
Buy Sony for only $19 billion – less than half of Apple’s every growing cash hoard.
Make Sony a subsidiary of Apple.
Are you guys serious? Apple buying Adobe would be like buying an Indian garage shack (no pun intended to any Indian). Adobe is just not fit for making software. Ever talked to people who work with CS4? Everything is glitchy, the UI is inconsistent, even such simple things as software suite wide shortcuts. Flash will die in the near future, PDF may be Adobe’s invention, but there are better ways to deal with them as with Adobe’s software. Premiere is in no way a match to Final Cut. Dreamweaver sucks and blows at the same time. Much better ways to code HTML. The only thing left is Photoshop… I user Pixelmator, but it’s not comparable to the full range of Photoshop, but suits the needs of 90% of all users.
adobe may have the gold standard with illustrator and photoshop… but really those apps could and should be so much better. They are bloated and jaded. They look like 10 year old apps.
Apple wants a closed market, monopoly and control over everything that comes out on their products, while Adobe enables everyone to create and share on any platform.
Apple must certainly dream of killing Adobe so that creative content can only be created under a strict Apple NDA and only distributed when Apple gets 30% of every sale.
Seems to me the author doesn’t use a Mac for anything more than just dicking around online.
Drop After Effects? You seriously think that Motion, especially now that Shake has been shitcanned, has anywhere near the same level of functionality & scope as After Effects? It integrates flawlessly with Photoshop, Illustrator, Encore & Premiere, which unfortunately without the help of Automatic Duck, AE & Premiere don’t talk with Final Cut. And, most importantly for Premiere, it operates on both Windows and OS X, which works wonders for me as I use both platforms.
Both camps know that all us end users of the CS suite in its various incarnations & Apple’s equivalents use a mix of programs from both sides. Nobody in their right mind works exclusively in Adobe or Apple programs at the expense of the other as to do so limits what you can do. The sooner that the program makers realise this and make their products more user friendly, the better.
you dont think apple would fix the integration of all the applications before they announced it? that is what apple is known for, ease of use.
Who cares why? Apple buying Adobe would be a genius move.
Apple would be buying a mess…
Apple should buy Pixelmator, the only thing Aperture needs is a photo composition tool…
Video tools, Apple already have (hmm, where is Shake?) them…
Acrobat: Apple reverse enginering of PDF already built in OS X just need some add ons…
Apple should’ve simply bought Macromedia years ago.
Amen Bro!
FreeHand was/is the best & Adobe bought and buried it!
http://www.freefreehand.org/
I hate to tell you, buddy, but the group I belong to at my compnay would just be turned off by Apple more if they killed Premiere Pro. We do valuable public safety work with that product which has been featured on America’s Most Wanted several times. If Apple bought Adobe and killed Premiere Pro, we’d most likely do one of two things: see if Avid is a viable solution or create our own editor. That’s at least one vote of no extra profits for Apple.
stupid post by an apple fan(atic)
Apple! Keep your hands firmly away from Adobe.
There is not a single reason why apple should buy adobe in my book.
Rubbish, unusable, overpriced toys !
Keep it real. Keep it adobe.
This could only be posted on a Blog named “TheAppleBlog.com”!
Adobe has other requirements that Apple don’t dominate and know! It would be a joint-venture with high probability of failure.
Interesting idea. I rather like it.
Apple buys Adobe – That would be one really nasty company buying one that is just nasty!
I’m sure Corel and al would happily fill any gap left by Adobe products disappearing from Windows. As a user of media products – everything created by Adobe is either buggy or has the most atrocious user interface, the one exception is Dreamweaver – but guess they didn’t design that!
>>Apple could create Final Cut for the PC
Apple would never do that. They only released iTunes for the PC to help sell hardware (iPods). Creating Final Cut for PC wouldn’t help Apple sell any hardware.
One point you didn’t mention, but which I think is exactly what makes Apple buying Adobe an incredibly great idea, is that Apple could then dictate Adobe’s stance in various W3C negotiations. They could tell Adobe to shut-up, follow Apple’s lead, and support h.264 as the standard for HTML5 video.
This has to be one of the most poorly thought-out arguments I have seen. Whether or not the merger would be a good idea is not in the least bit dependent on any of the rationalization presented in this article. Pure drivel and sophomoric at best.
Photoshop runs better on a Mac? Perceived maybe. Actually…umm….no. Last I knew Photoshop had no 64 bit Mac version. I’d put Photoshop on my Core i7 920 rig with Win 7 64bit against a Mac and PS any day of the week.
This article really came off like another Mac fanboy with his head in the sand.
Yes this is the biggest hoxe ever hahaha how many graphic designer think their software works better on a mac. We use to hear: “If you wanna do graphics buy a mac if you wanna do programming buy a PC” This is bullshit! HUGE. The only truth there is that Mac os is graphically a nicer environment to work, and specially to wok on design, but that’s just some windows shapes and buttons color you know..
Well the E thing is just the dumbest proposal in the world. E should be: Apple release good software for MAC, PC and LINUX system, as they build MAC OS on a linux maybe they could give back to the open source community NO??
MORRONS!
No.
OS/X is based on UNIX, not Linux.
OTOH, Apple does contribute to Open Source.
I want to know if anyone else still has feelings for Corel? OK: it’s not a patch on PS, but, it does do some things really well….especially in PhotoPaint.
Have both Corel, photocrape (ok Creative suite 3) and elements.
Want to get work done? Use Corel or Elements for photo work and use Photoshop when you have to. But make sure no-one is in ear shot!
Adobe can’t even make the most basic features of Elements work correctly – they probably rate as the one of the worst of the big software companies, overpriced and full of bugs. At least Microsoft tries to fix and maintain its software!
Thank goodness for Corel and some of the other smaller players!
whoever wrote this article has no business sense at all and should stick with blogging about how Apple will change the world one expensive piece of vertically integrated eye-candy after another.
your true partisan bias comes out so often here, it just shows how little you must know about the software business:
“Strip out all the extra junk and just make PDF’s do what they need to do.”
—do you even know how ubiquitous or powerful acrobat is!?! have you used it lately?
“Most of them could either be worked into existing Apple products or forgotten forever.”
—sure that’d make a lot of sense… integrate a multi-billion dollar acquisition into the “existing Apple product” and jack the base-price of all their machines up even more into the stratosphere to justify ROI.
Apple is _not_ going to buy Adobe. but Adobe will see a few of its products die a slow death. Their strength is InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator … they had better let the others die on the vine.
Adobe has to much dead wood to buy it.
I think you have to go back to your bunker and do some business intelligence.
If this happens it will be a sad world. Adobe is an excellent company, and if its bought it will slow down companies inovation and lean over an operating system. What adobe should do is to create its own competitive OS to inspire new ways of thinking, to get out farder away from the apples and the windows. Its time for a new OS.
Try running this one through the department of commerce. What a joke! It won’t pass the monopoly audit.
It would have been a more compelling post if the author speculated about Adobe buying Apple. It would be amusing to see what happens if anything even remotely smacking of platform neutrality were to be forcibly ingrained in Apple’s core offerings.
It’s possible the world could spontaneously implode.
@SomeDude, you’re on crack. Apple CAN’T do platform neutrality. It’s allergic. Seriously, Apple is a hardware company. They build great software, but only because it helps them sell their hardware. They ported iTunes to Windows to sell more iPods. They only port things when it is easy & free to do so (Safari) or when it drives hardware sales. It’s obvious from the fact that they charge $79 for iWork, while MS charges hundreds for Office. They charge about $120 for “OSX Ultimate”, while Vista Ultimate & 7 Ultimate cost much more. Also note that they don’t bother with serial numbers. Why? They don’t care if you pirate it, because it can only run on a Mac, which you already bought from them. They made their money on your hardware.
What would porting iPhoto or iMovie do for them? Nothing. It could maybe net them a few hundred grand from software sales, but being able to get those apps on a cheap PC would probably DECREASE demand for Macs. It’s a negative proposition for them.
LOLZ. This is CRaZY!
a) Apple isn’t in love with the creative field any longer. No matter what you think. Creative is not their core business, it”s niche.
b) Apple is shifiting towards building devices for content consumption and building computers for developers to build apps for said devices.
c) Apple doesn’t care about photoshop or illustrator or the market that uses them, that’s pretty clear.
And it was worked out well.
Let the app developers push your device and fight your battles. Sweet!
If Apple’s latest rival is Google, then the reason to buy Adobe is for Omniture.
What a nightmare, Apple is already the nazis of the industry – if anyone should buy Adobe its Google or even better Autodesk but i dont think they can afford it.
If Apple is the nazis, what is MS and Google?
who uses apple anyway ? 4% of computing population …..if apple bought adobe …they will shoot the price up by 100% ….
When Adobe had focus, a purchase by Apple might have made sense. But Adobe has acquired way too many products. Look at the entire list on the Adobe support site–it is just ridiculous.
Why would a company (Apple) which has made only a few, small acquisitions want to buy Adobe? Adobe is now the poster child for why a software company should not make too many acquisitions.
No way on E. That would open up a huge untapped market for video editing and other software for Windows. Sony Vegas and others would step in and possibly surpass the quality of Macdobe’s offerings.
Apple needs to expand the reach of their online social and utility applications (email, photos, data sync/backup, etc.) to reach Windows users, or they will be squeezed by Google as they have been squeezed by Microsoft.
So they should buy Zoho first, not Adobe.
Or PayPal
After reading your AE comment I am now deleting this blog page from my daily bookmarks.
Your ‘writer’ is a total ignoramus!
You have no idea and certainly no right to comment on things you obviously know nothing about. As a member of the film and TV industry (4 Emmy nominations – all work created on Adobe After Effects, I might add!) Adobe After Effects is a production staple of hundreds/thousands of professionals working in this industry.
To dismiss it with such shear disregard, displays a truly inept lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand.
Goodbye – from now on, I will be taking my Apple News Elsewhere!
Two years ago it was suggested that Microsoft buy Adobe. Last year it was Google. So of course it stands that someone argue this year that Apple buy Adobe.
As a writer, if you had done a bit of research and figured out if buying Adobe was such a brilliant strategic idea (and all of the companies have some of the best M&A experts in the world) that the offer would have already been made. A more enlightening article would have been the reasons why those big companies (who all have entire Flash/ Flex/ ColdFusion/ Photoshop/ AfterEffects/ Premier departments) find it better to be a Platinum-preferred customer rather than being an owner of the technology.
If anyone would like to read a post that has been professionally researched and fact checked regarding the conflict between Apple and Adobe, please follow this link:
http://blog.nothinggrinder.com/id-rather-be-a-woz
I learned nothing from this post. It contains zero factual information. Pure speculation has no place in media. It is fiction.
Apple is my favourite computer company and Adobe is my favourite software company. Say what you want, but there simply is nothing up to par with Photoshop and Illustrator. Whatever problems Flash has, it’s not its development environment. You can do a lot of stuff with Java and SVG and HTML 5, but until there is an app that does what Flash does (timeline based keyframe animations with motion guides, masks, tweens, etc), Flash will not die. There’s more to multimedia than just video.
I think it would be some bad mojo for Apple to buy Adobe, though. Might be a great business move, but there would be a lot of pissed off people who make their living off this relatively expensive software, without having to shell out for a Mac Pro for a Photoshop using desktop computer.
Illustrator is horrid.
Went down hill after 10. I use CS3 everyday and HATE it.
Can’t handle large amounts of text or large files and is a memory and disk hog. Very buggy!
What if Apple did buy Adobe, and STOPPED producing “Creative Suite” for Windows (photoshop/illustrator/indesign/premier/fireworks/lightroom/acrobat/dreamweaver), BUT renamed it “iCreate” and started charging only $79 for it on OSX, just like iWork & iLife.
They could ditch Premier and keep Final Cut Studio Pro. They could merge the best aspects of InDesign & Dreamweaver & iWeb (cough). They could merge the best aspects of Illustrator & Fireworks. They could merge the best aspects of Lightroom & Aperture.
They would be the undisputed King of Design, which is well aligned with Apple’s reputation/brand. It would also be another example of using software to drive hardware sales, which is Apple’s core strategy (iTunes sells iPods, Final Cut sells Macs).
This would make “switching” a much smarter business decision for companies, because hardware needs to be upgraded much less frequently than software.
I’m sure they’d rather pay an extra $500-800 for Apple hardware every few years, rather than pay $899-$2499 (cost of CS4 Master Suite) every year to upgrade their Adobe software to the latest version.
This is the best idea I’ve heard since AOL/Time Warner.
Wow, I was going to say Daimler Benz/Chrysler (and we all know how well that went, some $200 Billion down the drain later).
That’s an interesting idea, but it neglects to acknowledge the fact that Adobe now owns Omniture and is on a different trajectory as a company. This would make a merger more complex and less likely to succeed.
It’s an interesting idea but ultimately, it doesn’t fit in with Apple’s core competencies. I have no doubt that Adobe could use some house cleaning, product focus, and product realignment; however, that’s all I could see Apple bringing to the table. And why would they spend so much money to do that?
Although everyone gets nostalgic about how Apple and Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator were best on the Mac back in the day, the reality is that this segment of the market is not their cash cow and media creation performance on PC workstations is arguably “close enough” that the old saying doesn’t necessarily hold true anymore.
Furthermore, Adobe’s core market is the PC side since it’s such a much larger market (blue ocean strategy) and they have more solutions for the PC side of the market. Apple already has some nice solutions and alternatives for those within their “walled garden” so there would be no real benefit to Apple. Even if Apple bought Adobe, they would be crazy to kill off such a large revenue stream.
In closing, this article doesn’t make too much sense when you look at the big picture. It more points out the problems we (PC and Mac users) all have with Adobe and their seemingly lethargic platform update cycles and growing bloatware products.
I wish Apple would buy RapidWeaver ASAP from RealMac. Would not cost much and would be a good return/upgrade for Apple’s web author software.
IWeb currently is the VERY Worst program that Apple makes. No meta-tag support and the output is total garbage, worthless for SEO. Also, it is locked into MoblieMe.
You would think Apple would want their IWeb pages to rank high in Google, since IWeb pages are free advertising for Apple.
Currently IWeb is a toy for gramma and grampa! Totally Worthless!
It would be disastrous..Not for Apple (something I wouldn’t care), but for Adobe and the web..We don’t want ubiquitous products like Flash and Acrobat falling into the hands of a company that wants to treat me like a 5 year old..
Apple doesn’t need them. Apple doesn’t make these kinds of acquisitions. In any case, Apple doesn’t sell software (as a primary revenue stream), they sell hardware devices. While there may be some cute reasons to acquire them, there is no justification for the price it would take.
Last time Apple bought software company – Emagic – they immediatelly stoped producing their key software (Logic Pro) for Windows.
Shouldn’t an article with the headline – why apple should buy adobe – talk about what’s in it for apple if it buys adobe? Consider renaming the title to – what apple might/should do if it buys adobe
HAHAHA. Thanks! Should be titled..
‘Just how far up his Ass can an Apple fanboy stick his head?’
Oh Lament! LOL .
what a stupid idea. author clearly isn’t informed of adobe’s roadmap, products, or vision. competition is good.
I love apple’s user experience (my macbook pro) but they’re too vertical, big brother, elitist, drm oriented for my tastes.
Interesting …but it seems you lack knowledge concerning After Effects because Motion is no-way up to standards compared with AE.
Fair enough. I wasn’t aware that AE was so far ahead of the competition.
Anyone that thinks that Flash is going away for HTML5 doesn’t really understand the power of Flash. It will be years before all the browsers consistently support HTML5. So that takes care of displaying video, or simple animations. True – we all wish the guys that make bop the monkey Flash ads would just die. – But Flash empowers developers to make rich applications that leverage the power of the user’s computer and bandwidth to deliver better experiences that are more scaleable, with less development resources. A good example of this is TuneVision and SonicSwap. Developed on one platform, but released as AIR apps, supported on the phone, AppleTV, and computer. Flash applications download and manipulate data 1000 times faster than Javascript.
We have Adobe to thank for making fonts consistent across platforms, for the ability to read documents no matter who created them, and for making the first universally installed browser plug-in that 99% of browsers have by default.
This fight between Apple and Adobe is one sided. Adobe wants to work with Apple, but Jobs went on the offense. Flash on the iPhone makes it so that applications like TuneVision don’t need iTunes store approval to be released or available to you. This opens a walled garden that Apple doesn’t want opened.
The second reason Apple doesn’t want flash on the iPhone – the phone’s architecture is single threaded and the processor slow. The Google Nexus phone is so much faster than the iPhone, that when you put applications that have not been built in apple’s controlled development environment on the phone, you expose the fact that the iPhone and potentially even the iPad is way too slow to handle advanced websites that use Flash.
So Job’s puts up a smoke screen and says that HTML5 is going to replace Flash so why bother. For the near and distant future, you will not be able to see the entire web on any table or phone that doesn’t support Flash. Get over it Steve, and let Adobe finish the job and release on the iPhone.
@DanS
Conversely, anyone who thinks a proprietary technology like Flash has a place (long term) on the internet as the standard delivery for content, doesn’t understand the value of standards. Making summary judgements based on misinformation and draft specifications only demonstrates a lack of vision. There are enough demonstrations available today of HTML5 based web applications to demonstrate that Flash both can and will be replaced eventually. Clearly, a few things have to happen first. The draft needs to become a full standard. Implementations need to mature and of course, Microsoft needs to get on board with the 21st century with regard to browser technology. All of this will happen soon enough. If Adobe were smart, they’d read the writing on the wall and start making content creation programs based on this technology. It’s not a matter of “if”, just a matter of “when”. The same argument applies to Microsoft’s Silverlight, etc.
Finally, I’d like to see the basis for the claim that Flash applications manipulate data 1000x faster than Javascript.
I don’t know…
One of the things that makes Apple so great and simultaneously so frustratingly off the mark at times, is that if there’s another established company out there, in an established market, with an established product, that Apple’s DNA is such that they believe they can do better.
Acquiring Adobe would poison that Apple core DNA.
BTW, Adobe updates the Creative Suite every 18-months, just like Apple and the Mac OS… but that’s neither here nor there. I guess.
On second thought, this article is so comical in it’s thoughts and lack of knowledge on the subject that I’m left to wonder if I accidentally surfed on over to TheOnion.com.
I don’t have enough biz knowledge to comment on whether it makes sense for Apple to acquire Adobe; I’m a technologist. But, having closely compared Flash/Flex/Air to Microsoft’s (rapidly-improving) Silverlight technology I can say with great confidence that Adobe has already lost this battle. Flex/Flash, which dominated for years, has become clunky and outdated. Silverlight & .NET are far superior from a technical standpoint. Before people lambaste me as an MS groupie (I’m NOT) or comment on platform support, I’ll point out that Silverlight will support non-Windows platforms in the near future (Mono, Moonlight, etc.). Just my 2 cents.
@David
Silverlight is improving and someday (hopefully by release of Silverlight 5) will be decent enough in performance to use. However, Silverlight suffers the same limitation that Flash currently suffers in that Jobs has blocked both from being used on iPhones, not for technical reasons, but for financial reasons. I smell a class action suit and an anti-trust and competition lawsuit from the DOJ if Jobs doesn’t open the iPhone soon.
@James Wallis Martin
There’s no law that states a company MUST make their product work with anyone else’s product, so a class action, anti-trust lawsuit isn’t going to see a courtroom anytime soon.
Final Cut Pro is the crown jewel people. Do you realize major motion pictures on the big screen have been made with that thing. It’s the moo.
They can rollup Flash and toss it in the garbage can where it belongs.
Guys if you think this is crazy, read the following from Jason Perlow @ zdnet
Apple’s Influence on Visual Arts is Rotting to the Core
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=12168&tag=col1;post-12168
Google, Just Say No to iPhone
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=12208&tag=col1;post-12208
The guy has some serious problems with Apple Inc. Interestingly, he is all for the IPad.
IMHO, Apple should not buy Adobe, but this cat fight needs to stop.
This article seems biased against adobe and windows……seems like an apple fanboy who doesn’t know his facts wrote this filth. Flash is going to live regardless of HTML5 since it can be used in a lot more ways than HTML5, Acrobat is the standard format for documents submissions, AE well nothing compares to AE. Name 5 pieces of Apple software that is selling well. People dont even bother reading this, what a waste of a read
Adobe apps have great potential, but they’ve become a crappy, buggy bloatware. For example, I fail to understand why we don’t have the same keyboard shortcuts for common tasks across Creative Suite?? Like manipulation with layers, etc. Steve would definitely clean up Adobe of this idiotic problems, just like he did when he came back to Apple.
Wow, from reading through these comments, it’s clear that most people either love or hate Apple with not much room for anything in the middle. There have been so many comments which make very bold claims which of course are not supported by any facts.
@Grant,
This was clearly intended to be a light hearted article that takes a look at things from a high level. Somehow, an article that imagines “what if” is labeled as “filth”. I don’t agree with many parts of the article, but at least I can view the article in the same light hearted way it was written. Also, nothing against AE, it’s a fine product, but when you boldly claim that nothing compares to it, you’re just displaying your own ignorance.
From my perspective, we all know Apple has $40+ Billion in cash just burning a hole in it’s pocket. Today’s market cap shows Adobe’s at $18+ Billion. Do the math. Clearly, the speculation exists because Apple could easily buy Adobe at a premium and still have plenty of cash left over. Given Apple’s recent financial results this would amount to about 2 years worth of Apple’s profits.
Adobe has quite a few key assets that would be of interest to Apple. The obvious ones would be Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, PDF/Acrobat and possibly one or two others. However, the problem is, there is enough overlap whereby Apple either has a better product or a very closely competing product. In short, Apple would have no use for the majority of the purchase. Apple has no use for Flash, (yes, After Effects – as good as it may be), Premiere, Soundbooth, Lightroom, etc., etc. In reality, if Apple could build competing products for far less money if it chose to do so. As such, this would not be a sound investment.
As others have mentioned, Apple’s business model isn’t based on software sales. It’s based on hardware sales. Apple creates software to give it’s hardware platform an edge. If the leading product is available on the Mac, Apple doesn’t need to intervene. Adobe serves the Mac market well enough as is. Sure, we’d all Adobe to be better at support Apple specific technologies, etc. However, even Apple has been slow to support Cocoa / 64bit for it’s own products. Seeing as though Apple hasn’t jumped fully onboard here, I’m not sure why so many have been critical of Adobe for the same thing.
As we cover the “what-if’s”, how about covering a “what-if” where Adobe acquires Apple? Much of Apple’s success/money is tied up in hardware and support for that hardware… and because of this they are always at great risk of losing it. Look at Toyota…. Small mechanical factors = big risk. Through acquisition Adobe could help Apple Innovations become platform agnostic and more diffused; removing the risked tied to its hardware. Adobe could make use of assets such as its OS, multi-touch, 3D interface patents, Various Human – Machine interface patents, Media Distribution tools.
Many in the open source world would like to see Mac OS opened up – as it was originally developed around the open-source FreeBSD NetBSD components and become a unifying force on the FOSS landscape. Opening the OS would then allow Ubuntu to join the camp and we would have a truly competitive system in comparison to Windows. Dell has made appeals to Apple to provide a more open OS for its hardware… So in this scenario Adobe acquires apple and sells the hard portion of the company to Dell and the newly formulated Adob-untu carries forward with a universal OS and killer core apps+frameworks that unleashes a completely modern computing UX that kids and professional can use every day.
@simon are you crazy?? you would really like the lame ducks from Adobe to kill Apple this way? Bringing OS X and all Apple sw to their crappy standard and sell hardware unit to Dell toymaker? If you want crap, feel free to buy Dell with W7, but please leave Apple as is for the rest of us.
Pepa… Claiming that Dell is a toymaker and that Adobe has crappy standards is rather juvenile. I realize this “what-if’ is a stretch, but it is at least a scenario to consider as we dream up preferred alternatives to reality. And where momentum is building (virtualization of hardware)… the center piece of great platform neutral software, pushed through RIA based delivery channel (Flash, AIR) is wildly compelling. It is clearly a design centered approach that moves the importance of the holistic experience into the user’s court… and somewhat out of the developers or the manufacturer’s hands.
The world loves the passion Apple has applied to its design of products in the computing world (no one does it better)… and there are many scenarios where conversations about software become moot because processor speeds and rich haptic / audio based interactions marginalize the need to know about software. This is where Apple is strong… boiling down the computer UX into a true information appliance, were there very little learning or troubling over interfaces or cables, etc. Perhaps you can speak more about this scenario for us and why having Adobe as part of this picture is relevant?
@Steve
You are spot on with regards to the focus of Apple. This is quite different compared to when Adobe acquired Macromedia who both had products playing in the same fields (Fireworks vs Photoshop, Freehand vs Illustrator, Dreamweaver vs Cue) so it made sense for the merging of two software houses.
As for Flash seeing the writing on the wall, HTML 5 is not the holy grail the media hype is making it out to be. As for Adobe working with HTML 5, look no further than the most popular Web Editor program, Adobe Dreamweaver CS 5 which support HTML 5.
The reason I see the Flash Platform around for years to come is because of the client side architecture versus the server side architecture of HTML 5. User experience and data performance will also stay in the realm of client side architecture like Flash and Silverlight. So there is more than enough room in cyberspace for both server side HTML 5 and client side Flash. Adobe is smart to have a foot in each camp with both Dreamweaver and Flash/Flex.
Adobe will survive even if Apple doesn’t come to the party. For me, if iPad doesn’t come with Flash Player, I won’t purchase one. If they do, I will purchase hundreds. There are many more like me and it is merely a choice from Apple which is going to cost them more; opening applications that can be developed without needing to buy a Macintosh and without having to go through iTunes Store or selling less hardware.
I honestly don’t have the answer and frankly I don’t think anyone has the answer either.
Wow. Look at all these comments. Looks like someone was paying attention during the webinar ‘Blogging For A Buzz-101.’ Especially the section: “Build some blog buzz by taking a controversial position.” If nothing else, this one post could be a nice little case study in stirring a small section of blogosphere into a froth. Take note you wonderful blogerati, take note. Nice work!
I read your comment once I posted mine.
That expains everyones fury here very nicely.
Well done.
“Animations, games, crazy navigation menus and long site intros”
Ask yourself honestly. Had AJAX and Javascript and WebGL entered the scene instead of Flash, wouldn’t we have awesome 3D polygonic spinning advertisements and intros?
And instead of FlashBlocker for the Firefox, we’ll have JSBlocker for the Firefox.
The only difference to be made here is that one is governed by a standards company, the other a proprietary company. Convincing yourself that HTML 5 would be woe-free will just lead to disappointment when AJAX advertisements does the exact same thing as Flash does.
“I believe Apple could really improve Adobe’s products and make them more reliable”
I doubt it. First Apple needs to fix their latest Mac OS X. See the dozens of really bad reviews (system freezing, apps crashing, etc.) of Snow Leopard:
http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/MC223Z/A?mco=MTcwNDc5Nzg
“Make a new version when real features are created”
Because Apple knows a lot about releasing products when real features are created. Say hellow to the iPhone 3G and the 3GS with no major features but all Apple fanboys flock to buy the new thing.
“Apple could create Final Cut for the PC or forget about them altogether.”
That is such a sign that this is an Apple Fanboy written article.
They cant just ignore the PC because it is a huge market that professional editors use. Doing this would completely alienate a major piece of the market.
If this Pie-in-the-sky takeover ever happens, Apple wont be stupid enough to do any of the things you are mentioning here.
Anyone who thinks Apple merging the Adobe suite into simple proprietary apps like iDraw, iPrint, iWeb etc. is a great idea is obviously not familiar with the extensive features of CS.
Yes many of these apps are blotted and buggy…I won’t argue with that….but as a creative professional who’s been using Adobe for years (before Ps even had layers) I can tell you NOTHING comes close!
BTW…I did some design work for Adobe when Macromedia was still around…they were quick to admit that they were releasing stuff that was buggy and written on top of (old) bad code because they were in the rat race with Macromedia. Direct competition was a good and bad thing. Now no competition is a mixed blessing (Apple is not DIRECT competition for most of its suite)
Apple buying Adobe doesn’t make much sense right now..and yes the mobile market is too important for them to be messing around with rebuilding Adobe.
In the meantime, I will be using Flash 5 to develop apps for the iPad/iPhone on my inexpensive 27″ iMac :)
I agree with everything you’ve said, but you want to cut down what a sub company offers on its own owners OS, and ‘similar’ on the competitors OS? Bad.
I agree with Chris, it would be a good chance to clean up Windows and be known for it, like iTunes.
Adobe has little or no people or intelligence Apple wants, just ubiquity, which Apple does fantastically well without.
The company Apple needs to buy is Intuit. These folks just can’t seem to bring their financial software into the Mac world. How many thousands are still using their PC’s because they can’t use Quicken on their Macs and don’t want to go to the expense and hassle of running Windows.
You lost me at “why is premier even needed”…..
1. competition
2. it does video editing differently
3. final cut pro has issues and big learning curve
4. in many cases can be faster than FCP
(I love FCP, but apple really needs to be updating it MUCH more often… competition helps)
Apple should buy adobe so it can make all apps first on Mac, and best on Mac (eg 64bit lag in photoshop).
I think the review is purely biased, leaning on the mac side. Can Apple buy Adobe? Please! I don’t think so. Yes it’s true that Adobe is guilty of minor improvements with each release sometimes, and I have seen them take features from competing apps like Painter X ( live rotation of canvas ) and calling them “new features”. They took really long to allow AI to use multiple page documents although it could have been done with a few steps and involve some math. The truth is Adobe should buy Apple or pay them to develop a machine that runs adobe software perfectly and speedily. An “Adobe OS” if you will, maybe “Adobe Creative Platform”. I am one who thinks they should develop for linux ( Ubuntu, Mandriva ). Linux is faster and more efficient than Windows and crashes less often than Mac or Windows, if at all. Not all linux are near perfect though. Oh yeah, you said kill Acrobat!? Acrobat is one of the single most important software in the world. Print and web Production will come to a halt. As I said, great article, too biased.
Right on, this was the point I made earlier. People are so caught up in the iPhone/iPad hysteria (which is basically a new flavor of the 1980′s “I want my MTV”… served in an instant gratification cone + some sprinkles), that they are missing the real emerging star of the show. And that would be great software that empowers people to “do” and “make” things… you know the “thing” your wanting to get to after the party if over and cake is put away. Adobe works incrementally to make the impossible (or out of reach) achievable: ubiquitous media deliver, universal document collaboration and sharing, real multimedia (little help from macromedia), printing, electronic media, simple video media production and sound design, typography, ubiquitous web development tools, unified media and software application development tools, web collaboration, first to market and best in class rich media solutions, etc. With Adobe it’s such a broad and rich compilation of products, tools and competencies that in comparison noobies to the rich media and communication market like Facebook and Apple iTunes seem juvenile or knee-jerk (a sort of social horror vacui)…. “must consume mass qualtities”.
This extended discussion is actually helping us cut through the fog and Jobs reality-field-distortion and see that soft underbelly of Apple, which is really the desperation of Apple to capture that significant market share we all more of less wish they have (with so many years in the trenches fighting Windoz). And there is fire in the belly for those pulling for this underdog because Apple is an American Innovation Icon and so thus something of a beacon of honor with ties to our roots as a nation of technologists and or innovators.
Sadly this patriotism is a tad misplaced. Good design and or technical innovation knows no geography or culture, it is not product of entrenched pride. This takes us back to Adobe and that little thing that brings about a repeated allergic reaction on the Apple epidermis…. Flash. Flash, so often mocked by developers as a toy and often portrayed by journalist as an ad-banner engine – is clearly the model of the future media delivery and has a deeper and richer history than most give it credit. The genesis of Flash was really formulated inside the Jonathan Gray’s SmartSketch drawing application from Go Corp (makers of the PenPoint OS)… that later sued Microsoft for collusion and theft of its technology… Microsoft supposedly used PenPoint OS concepts in the development of Windows for Tablet PC. Jonathan Gray was also the developer of emerging collection of Macintosh based vector drawing and painting programs that competed with Illustrator and Freehand back in the day. SmartSketch became FurtureSplash and Future Splash Animator and was brought to the internet… The developers tried to sell it Adobe in 1995 – but Adobe declined… later Flash was of course acquired by Macromedia. Much of the novelty with Flash in all of its incarnations is simply the delivery of vector geometry over the web. And this relates to why Flash fits into the Adobe ecosystem. Of course Adobe could have acquired Flash in 1995 for much less than the purchase of Macromedia.
Oddly enough this vector and animation engine evolved to many other things… where ever HTML standards fails and browsers continued to fight Flash prevailed… as it still does today. HTML delivers basic text content well… but details vector graphics and control (i.e. PDF type) web content is streamlined and consistent across all platforms and browsers – because of a free Adobe proprietary plugin delivery method. It’s the same convention used by Macromedia with Director and the Shockwave plugin… but with mass adoption and interoperability. And now H.264 Mpeg-4 video is flowing through the same pipe at no cost to the user. This is pipe that apple does not want to flow into their products.
Apple has made its recent mark on the mobile device market with a specifically optimized set of software and hardware that creates reliable interaction. This early market penetration won’t last because where content and context are king… Adobe owns the space. The mobile hardware state of the art will advance to the point where requiring Objective-C and very detail memory management for mobile media consumption will be silly (especially legal requirements that mandate things like Apple’s Cocoa Touch API and development tools for Mac OSX for iPhone). Apple should have been headed down the path of a close partnership with Adobe – some time ago… and blended its Unix/Linux OS into a ecosystem for Adobes great software. Now we have a situation where the damage is irreversible and other more progressive Adobe partnerships with Windows, Linux OS systems and Google’s Chrome OS is a much more favorable option. Sorry Apple – you’re own your own now.
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[...] Flash a su s’imposer comme standard de facto pour les contenus rich media du web, en sera-t-il de même pour les contenus des touchbooks ? Difficile à dire pour le moment dans la mesure où le marché a toutes les chances d’être très largement dominé par l’iPad et que les rapports sont très tendus entre Adobe et Apple. Je ne vois pas bien comment la situation pourrait se débloquer dans les prochaines semaines… si ce n’est avec le rachat d’Adobe par Apple. L’idée vous semble farfelue ? Réfléchissez-y à deux fois, et pour vous aider, je vous propose cette lecture : 7 Reasons For Apple To Acquire Adobe et Why Apple Should Buy Adobe. [...]