Adobe & Macromedia about surviving Microsoft?

[arcobb]

I like most people am shocked about the merger with Adobe and Macromedia. I'd love to see both companies live long and prosper. However I have a gut feeling this is more about surviving Microsoft.

I just watched the Keynote speech from Bill Gates from WinHEC (I know... but let me say I've never owned a pc... My first apple was a IIe and I've never had a bone in my body say "Oh man if I only had a PC! Then I really would be cool... and, ur and stuff.") and they talked up Longhorn. What got my attention was when they talked about a feature called metro (if this is not how its spelled please don't hurt me!). It is a way to sent documents to printers, scale them up... and share information with others on other computers. I said to my self "huh, why would they need to create something like that when its already been created." PDF. I thought that PDF was supposed to be the medium to end all media. I mean pdf’s are great right? Have you ever met a PDF you haven’t liked? You don't worry about fonts, High Res PDF's can be made for print they can even contain QuickTime movies (and I assume other media formats would be possible) So why is Microsoft creating something that seems to be competing with PDF's? Just to confuse everyone? And way would I want to have to look for a printer that is Metro compatible? So for your web browser you need Adobe Acrobat Reader and also Microsoft Metro?

Then I got thinking that one Adobe Flash Acrobat Reader doesn't sound so crazy after all. Maybe Adobe and Macromedia knew of this and are trying to leverage their strengths together to battle the Behemoth M$? To me this seems like a very big deal that Microsoft would be creating a new operating system that is highly visual, seemingly media oriented and creating technologies such as Metro that seemingly puts its crosshairs on pdf’s. Microsoft has market share and clout to push something like this though. And what else does Microsoft have up its sleave that we don’t know about.

Anyway that is my deep thought for 1:07 in the morning ... what’s your thought??

p.s Here is the link to Microsoft’s web cast of Bill Gate’s Keynote (and yes… his Power point presentations pales in comparison to Steve’s Keynote! Heck it would have been better off if he had someone create it in Keynote and exported it into Powerpoint!)

http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

 

[angelneo]

It seems a little too far fetched for the excutives at Adobe and Macromedia to think about this when Adobe acquired Macromedia. I would say it has more to do with Adobe expanding their strength since the new Microsoft feature has not really been seen by the public yet. Furthermore, I don't think Adobe has to acquire Macromedia to beat Microsoft off their tail with their new "Metro". PDF has been growing from strength to strength and I would think Microsoft would have to throw a lot of money away before they can convince people (esp print industry) to switch plus Adobe has tons of software supporting PDF.

 

[arcobb]

It seems a little too far fetched for the excutives at Adobe and Macromedia to think about this when Adobe acquired Macromedia. I would say it has more to do with Adobe expanding their strength since the new Microsoft feature has not really been seen by the public yet. Furthermore, I don't think Adobe has to acquire Macromedia to beat Microsoft off their tail with their new "Metro". PDF has been growing from strength to strength and I would think Microsoft would have to throw a lot of money away before they can convince people (esp print industry) to switch plus Adobe has tons of software supporting PDF.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying Microsoft is an 800 pound gorilla. You know what an 800 pound gorilla does?.....

Anything they want. If M$ wants to make something that is like pdf. They can, and likely people will use it. For example their are many many programs that export to quicktime but look how many sites use Microsoft are using Media Player lately. Media Player does the same thing as Quicktime and Quicktime was here first (I think) and Microsoft is having a huge Impact.

 

[dstorey]

I'm just saying Microsoft is an 800 pound gorilla. You know what an 800 pound gorilla does?.....

Eat lots of bananas?

 

[Chappers]

Eat lots of bananas?

Nice one.

Cool TAR too

 

[Blue Velvet]

Anything they want. If M$ wants to make something that is like pdf. They can, and likely people will use it.

I would argue that Acrobat & its variants are too entrenched on the business desktop for that and Adobe is years ahead of anything that MS are likely to pull out of the hat.

Furthermore, unless their new format is suitable for press then it's a loser from the start... there are millions of PDFs floating about produced with Distiller on a Mac. If I produce a press-quality flyer for print, I don't produce a new one for the web: the press one gets cropped, reoptimised and repurposed for web/email distribution.

There aren't many corporates that would be happy with distributing publicity material produced from Word to PDF so paradoxically, if MS can't leverage their PDF competitor onto the Mac desktop they're at an immediate disadvantage.

 

[Fukui]

I would argue that Acrobat & its variants are too entrenched on the business desktop for that and Adobe is years ahead of anything that MS are likely to pull out of the hat.

I hope you are right, but... when Longbone goes on sale, and OEMs equip it with thier computers, all it takes is one year to get 40+ million "Metro" publishing users to sway the tide. If its integrated into the printing window just like OS X... watch out.

 

[Apple Hobo]

You know what an 800 pound gorilla does?.....

Produce a lot of feces and throw it at people. Yep...sounds like Microsoft.

 

[arcobb]

Produce a lot of feces and throw it at people. Yep...sounds like Microsoft.

lol

 

[crackpip]

There has been talk about this sort of thing for a long time. M$ wants to create its own software to become a universal format for handling forms. The details were unknown, and may not have even been about this specific technology, but M$ attempting to take over a market segment held by Adobe has been discussed for more than a year.

Several other computer oriented news sites have also expressed the same idea before todays announcement. It is, and it should be a worry for Adobe. M$ is bundling it in with Longhorn, which is going to give it a significant boost from the non-professional sector. Printers and such may not be accepting it now, but the market may swing all too readily when the people writing the content start applying pressure.

crackpip

 

[GFLPraxis]

Have you ever met a PDF you haven’t liked?

Actually, yes. In Windows. The PDF viewer in Internet Explorer is a bloated peice of crap, takes half an hour to load a PDF and is choppy when you scroll down.

On a 2.6 GHz P4 with 512 MB of RAM, that is.

Only on a Mac is the PDF the media to end all media. Windows has TERRIBLE PDF support, as it loads slow, renders choppy, and doesn't look near as good as on a Mac with Quartz



On topic:
I wouldn't be surprised if Adobe bought Macromedia because they were afriad Microsoft would first.

 

[cr2sh]

The average user doesn't have adobe acrobat. A easier to use, more cost effective solution to document incompatibilities is needed.

If M$ is invisioning a general, multiuse file format that can swap in between all MS computers that can be rich in content and design... without a concern of formating changes... and this will be included in all Windows OS's.... I applaud the idea.

 

[GFLPraxis]

The average user doesn't have adobe acrobat. A easier to use, more cost effective solution to document incompatibilities is needed.

If M$ is invisioning a general, multiuse file format that can swap in between all MS computers that can be rich in content and design... without a concern of formating changes... and this will be included in all Windows OS's.... I applaud the idea.

That is ALREADY PDF! All MS has to do is support PDF. Almost all Windows users I see have already downloaded Adobe Acrobat, actually.

The most cost effective solution is for MS to add built in PDF support. Period.

I'm shocked that you are applauding this. You do realize the reprecussions, right? MS controls a proprietary format that does the same thing as PDF. Microsoft uses its Windows monopoly to force this format upon people. This format because replacing PDF since webmasters realize Windows users have this format built in, so they don't have to worry about people not having Acrobat.

This format is Windows only, therefore, Mac users cannot read those web pages (and even in best case are forced to install Microsoft software to do so) and are stuck.

Microsoft wins, once again using its monopoly to leverage itself and crush an open format.

 

[cr2sh]

Almost all Windows users I see have already downloaded Adobe Acrobat, actually.

The most cost effective solution is for MS to add built in PDF support. Period.

This format is Windows only, therefore, Mac users cannot read those web pages (and even in best case are forced to install Microsoft software to do so) and are stuck.

Microsoft wins, once again using its monopoly to leverage itself and crush an open format.

First, making general unsupported declarations such as "Almost all Windows users I see have already downloaded Adobe Acrobat" is not going to win any arguments with me. I don't think this is the case. In fact, I know that the vast majority of my friends and colleagues, DO NOT have full blown Acrobat on their machine. They have Reader... but not a single one of my friends has a piece fo software on their machine that allows them to MAKE pdfs.

Second, "Most cost effective solution"? Where did you get this? I'm not going to pretend to know the complicated world of M$ and software coding and development and licensing from Adobe... but I know for a fact that M$ isn't trying to make friends for a living. They're doing what makes the most sense as a business and I highly doubt they take into consideration what you feel is "most cost effective."

Third, my vision of this software is such that my Mom uses it to send me a birthday card... or my Aunt uses it to send recipes. General. Print to file type stuff. I'm guessing this stuff will be bulky, ugly (think BMP) type stuff... because Adobe sure isn't providing a solution right now. (think iMovie for pdf)

If M$ is going after this market, I agree. It might be needed.

I don't support M$ crushing Adobe... but I also don't think that's going to happen, period.