Adobe Goes On the Offensive Against Microsoft

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/25/adobe/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/25/adobe/index.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Adobe Systems Inc.’s agreement to acquire Macromedia for approximately US$3.4 billion will give the company a formidable collection of Web publishing and document management software — and will place it squarely in the path of tools rival Microsoft."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Adobe.jpg" /><br /><br />Some interesting views on the Adobe-Macromedia merger, and how Adobe plans to use its tools to assault the Juggernaut from Redmond.

[James Fee]

Another good writeup on the "merger" is written over at Daring Fireball.

http://daringfireball.net/2005/04/adobe_translation

John's post cleared up everything for me. :lol:

[Kent Pribbernow]

Oh my God...that was hilarious! And so true! :lol:

But please, don't mentioning killing and Fireworks in the same sentence...it makes me nervous. :eek:

[Felix Torres]

Well, with MS preping a wide-open, xml-based pdf equivalent, adobe has to be concerned.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/04/25/HNmetro_1.html

They surely couldn't expect their moves into enterprise document systems, a turf MS needs as growth-space, to go unanswered, so by picking up macromedia and locking up that market, they cover their rear in preparation for the big two-front battle to come with MS.

If Adobe is smart, their next step is to buy Word Perfect.

They have a year to prep their defense against the assault on castle PDF.
If they're not careful, between Metro and MS Reader they'll be sandwiched once the Longhorn generation comes out.

[James Fee]

Well, with MS preping a wide-open, xml-based pdf equivalent, adobe has to be concerned.
You think? It is just too late. PDF has become the standard and I doubt even Microsoft could change that. Remember PDF is an open standard as well.

[Felix Torres]

Well, with MS preping a wide-open, xml-based pdf equivalent, adobe has to be concerned.
You think? It is just too late. PDF has become the standard and I doubt even Microsoft could change that. Remember PDF is an open standard as well.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1789314,00.asp

Wide open, royalty free?
Based on open html/xml standards?
With no need for a proprietary viewer or editor?
With full zoom-in zoom-out no-loss-in-fidelity capabilities?
That is a native display function in 100 million PCs by 2010?

Adobe has a big lead.
So did Type 1.
How long did it take for TrueType to erase Type 1's lead?
Not saying its a sure thing, but I'm thinking there's a horse race here.

There's a lot of things to hate about pdf.
Metro sounds like it addresses them.
I'm not writing it off and, if you look at Adobe's moves, neither are they.
What's the saying? Once burned, twice shy?
Adobe's whole document management and workflow business is built on pdf; if MS can drive a wooden stake through the heart of pdf, it would put a major crimp on Adobe's challenge to MS's Office business.

Which is why I said Adobe needs to buy word perfect.

If you're going to fight this war, you need to fight it on all fronts.
And by going after FrontPage and InfoPath and Sharepoint, Adobe already fired the first shots.

[James Fee]

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1789314,00.asp

Wide open, royalty free?
Based on open html/xml standards?
With no need for a proprietary viewer or editor?
With full zoom-in zoom-out no-loss-in-fidelity capabilities?
That is a native display function in 100 million PCs by 2010?
Why would I bother with that when I know those 100 million PCs already have acrobat on them and consumers already know what it is.

Adobe has a big lead.
So did Type 1.
How long did it take for TrueType to erase Type 1's lead?
Not saying its a sure thing, but I'm thinking there's a horse race here.Sure with Adobe's help.

There's a lot of things to hate about pdf.
Metro sounds like it addresses them.
I'm not writing it off and, if you look at Adobe's moves, neither are they.
What's the saying? Once burned, twice shy?
Adobe's whole document management and workflow business is built on pdf; if MS can drive a wooden stake through the heart of pdf, it would put a major crimp on Adobe's challenge to MS's Office business.
I just don't see that mattering. Acrobat has so much security built into it and people are comfortable using it that there is no reason to switch. Is it perfect, not at all. But Microsoft has waited way too long to start trying to get people to switch.

Which is why I said Adobe needs to buy word perfect.
Not at all. Someone needs to stick a fork in wordperfect. Acrobat integrates very well into Office as it is. Why bother being distracted by something that isn't used by their main market. The corporate market uses Office and Acrobat very well, Adobe has decreased the price for Acrobat since version 6 was introduced and people are used to the format and know what to expect.

If you're going to fight this war, you need to fight it on all fronts.
And by going after FrontPage and InfoPath and Sharepoint, Adobe already fired the first shots.Wasting time and effort trying to push WordPerfect won't get you anywhere. I currently use Sharepoint with PDF files everyday and the Adobe IFilter allows indexing of these PDF files perfectly. All Adobe needs to do is continue refining Acrobat and make sure they keep the corporate market happy. As long as there is an adobe icon on the word/excel toolbar to create PDFs that is all that matters.

[Felix Torres]

As long as there is an adobe icon on the word/excel toolbar to create PDFs that is all that matters.

&lt;shrug>
Dunno, but if Adobe really thinks that, Steve Balmer is going to be a very happy camper. Microsoft's favorite competitors are the ones that don't fight back.
Time will tell.
This is hardly a pressing issue since Metro is a Longhorn feature, so the fight won't start for 18 months...

[Jonathon Watkins]

Another good writeup on the "merger" is written over at Daring Fireball.

It certainly is. :lol: Thanks for sharing that. :)

Macromedia is dead apparently though.......