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ADOBE TO ACQUIRE MACROMEDIA
- Thread starter mara
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I can only see a lot more for Microsoft than Apple out of this ... I just don't think Apple would ever be allowed to buy Adobe ... Microsoft would stop that.
Adobe's price would rise to a point where Apple just couldn't buy it.
This might be a backdoor strategy that -in the end- 'forces' people to choose PC/Win over Mac/OSX ... and MS would love that, since they wouldn't have to spend on Mac S/W development and adaptation for Mac.
I think Apples only strategy is to continue developing its own apps ... at a furious pace!!!
Adobe's price would rise to a point where Apple just couldn't buy it.
This might be a backdoor strategy that -in the end- 'forces' people to choose PC/Win over Mac/OSX ... and MS would love that, since they wouldn't have to spend on Mac S/W development and adaptation for Mac.
I think Apples only strategy is to continue developing its own apps ... at a furious pace!!!
This is a monster announcement. I wonder how things will heat up between Apple and Adobe now. I also wonder if Adobe will jack up their prices because their competition isn't so stiff. I hope not of course.
This doesn't make me happy
Adobe wants Macromedia to get Flash, pure and simple. (There are many precedents in the industry for this kind of acquisition; it's like IBM buying Lotus to get Notes, for instance -- they didn't have any use for the rest of Lotus's products and promptly jettisoned them.) SVG never got off the ground; Flash has been the jewel in Macromedia's crown that Adobe has wanted for years.
Adobe already has the other bases covered, at least on the desktop (the Macromedia server-side products are a different issue).
I started using GoLive long before Adobe bought it, when it was GoLive (the German software company's name) CyberStudio. Then along came Dreamweaver, and I've been using it ever since. I keep GoLive around, but I still think Dreamweaver is a better product; it's the one I turn to first.
I'm afraid I've seen the last Dreamweaver incarnation.
Yes, Adobe may well incorporate some DW features into GoLive, or Fireworks widgets into ImageReady; but I suspect that the Macromedia products (and their names) are history. Don't forget Adobe sued Macromedia because the latter dared to use dockable tabbed palettes in the user interface! Adobe no doubt feels that they have superior existing products in Illustrator et al., why would they drop them? After some marketing push about the newer, better, faster, whiz-bang GoLive ("now with Dreamweaver inside!"), customers will buy it because Dreamweaver won't be an option.
Adobe wants Macromedia to get Flash, pure and simple. (There are many precedents in the industry for this kind of acquisition; it's like IBM buying Lotus to get Notes, for instance -- they didn't have any use for the rest of Lotus's products and promptly jettisoned them.) SVG never got off the ground; Flash has been the jewel in Macromedia's crown that Adobe has wanted for years.
Adobe already has the other bases covered, at least on the desktop (the Macromedia server-side products are a different issue).
I started using GoLive long before Adobe bought it, when it was GoLive (the German software company's name) CyberStudio. Then along came Dreamweaver, and I've been using it ever since. I keep GoLive around, but I still think Dreamweaver is a better product; it's the one I turn to first.
I'm afraid I've seen the last Dreamweaver incarnation.
Yes, Adobe may well incorporate some DW features into GoLive, or Fireworks widgets into ImageReady; but I suspect that the Macromedia products (and their names) are history. Don't forget Adobe sued Macromedia because the latter dared to use dockable tabbed palettes in the user interface! Adobe no doubt feels that they have superior existing products in Illustrator et al., why would they drop them? After some marketing push about the newer, better, faster, whiz-bang GoLive ("now with Dreamweaver inside!"), customers will buy it because Dreamweaver won't be an option.
real web developers code their websites with bbedit 
either way thow, this "could" be cool, but it also more or less corners the market on web dev
all they really need is to buy a linux shop for apache and u have a 1 stop shop (less hardware oviously)
cool thow
-Mario
either way thow, this "could" be cool, but it also more or less corners the market on web dev
all they really need is to buy a linux shop for apache and u have a 1 stop shop (less hardware oviously)
cool thow
-Mario
A PDF file with embedded Flash would make a better web page than web pages...
They should try to slowly take over the Internet.
They should try to slowly take over the Internet.
Bigger in what way?nighthawk said:
Apple is larger then Adobe in several ways (at least pre merger and likely still after), for example:
- Revenue, 11 billion for Apple, 1.72 billion for Adobe
- Market Capitialization, 29.19 billion for Apple, 13.13 billion for Adobe
- Property Plant and Equipment, 707 million Apple, 100 million Adobe
- ...
this is horrible. the two greatest design software companies merge and now, no more competition. less innovation ensues. not like photoshop has seen any major innovation since 6 anyways.
if they were to throw out some products and merge a suite, this is what i wouldn't mind having:
- Acrobat Pro
- Photoshop/Imageready
- Illustrator
- Dreamweaver
- Flash*
* NOTE: i actually hate flash, everything about it, and i dont touch it with a 10 foot pole, but it would make sense in a suite like this.
if they were to throw out some products and merge a suite, this is what i wouldn't mind having:
- Acrobat Pro
- Photoshop/Imageready
- Illustrator
- Dreamweaver
- Flash*
* NOTE: i actually hate flash, everything about it, and i dont touch it with a 10 foot pole, but it would make sense in a suite like this.
You must not use Photoshop much at all. While iPhoto '05 definitely brought in some neat tools to quickly help the novice with Levels, Color Correction and the occasional red-eye, it is nowhere near the sophistication of Photoshop. Couple that with brandname recognition, and only a company begging for a losing propostion would consider going head-to-head with Adobe Photoshop.Porchland said:
True, Adobe went head-to-head with the bohemeth that was Quark when they brought InDesign to market, but a pagelayout program for them made perfect sense AND there was sooo many things wrong with Quark that could needed SOMEONE to fix. Quark's problem was apathy. They had the market sewn up and needed someone to teach them a lesson in software design and competition.
While Quark was a mediocre program that was stagnate, Photoshop is an amazing program and it's getting better and better all the time. Why would Apple want to challenge that? Also, since the PC version makes up 90+% of all copies of PS sold, how would Apple convince PC users (that probably hate Apple to begin with) to even try a souped-up version iPhoto?
They have too many fish to fry to try and take on the monster that is Adobe Photoshop.
I hate when people bring up the BBedit comment...Being a designer, and associating with plenty of designers, it's DreamWeaver all the way. GoLive is way behind in terms of interface and ease of use.
Freehand - Is it still for sale anyways? (jk) Again, NOT ONE designer I know touches this product - it's Illustrator all the way. But to each his own. People need to use what works for them.
Has anyone considered Adobe keeping both, or all? Bud Light, Bud Select, BudWeiser, Bud Ice, Bud Dry (anyone remember that?)
Freehand - Is it still for sale anyways? (jk) Again, NOT ONE designer I know touches this product - it's Illustrator all the way. But to each his own. People need to use what works for them.
Has anyone considered Adobe keeping both, or all? Bud Light, Bud Select, BudWeiser, Bud Ice, Bud Dry (anyone remember that?)
The scary thing about this is that adobe almost has as sway in the future of the Mac platform. If Adobe stops development of Mac software or Microsoft buys them, it could be the end of the Mac as a viable platform no matter what Apple does. No acrobat support + no flash support + no shockhave support = really bad and that's just the free consumer level let alone the pro apps.
All I can say is... wow. I NEVER saw this one coming! This is a heck of a lot to take in...
Freehand vs. Illustrator, Dreamweaver vs. GoLive... I hope they amalgamate the best of both programs and not just axe one completely!
Adobe Flash... that just sounds so weird...
I NEVER saw this one coming! This is a heck of a lot to take in...Freehand vs. Illustrator, Dreamweaver vs. GoLive... I hope they amalgamate the best of both programs and not just axe one completely!
Adobe Flash... that just sounds so weird...
Boy, I hope so - I'm already starting to sweat! But we all remember those days when Macromedia abandoned Director to focus on the web (typified by the purchasing of Coldfusion for CASH!), which almost sank the company.iGav said:I suspect Director will be safe, it's still the de-facto choice for authoring of CD-ROM's, Enhanced CD-ROM's, DVD-ROM's, Kiosk's and with the exception of iShell, there's nothing similar or as capable out there.
Hopefully Adobe will invest in developing it a little more than Macromedia have been doing over the last few years, .swf output would be nice for a start.
How many years (and rumors of its death) did we go through before it was resurrected? The worst fear is that it becomes too small of a product group (based on revenue) inside the larger Adobe - even though the last MM earnings conference call spoke of it as a steady cash cow.
Well have to wait a few years and see how this one pans out. At least the latest version allows MAC OS X (and thus the hard part of porting it to the latest platform is already done), so it should be usable for at least 5-10 years at worst.
My worst fears are of the Fontographer disaster - when MM bought Aldus, included in the package was this niche product. I don't think MM even did a minor update after 1995, although you can still find Fontographer on the MM website!
The nice thing is that there is a steady user base of developers for Director, so even if Adobe decides to axe it in a few years, its probably valuable enough to sell to a niche player who will continue to support it.
Freehand
This is solely my opinion... but it comes from someone who has managed advertising and creative departments, taught college graphic design, made a living as a freelance illustrator, and spent 15 years in the industry:
Freehand is and will always be superior to Illustrator.
Ask anyone who isn't a casual user and who actually has to live by these apps.
Freehand is vastly more intuitive.
Again, this is just my opinion.
I agree.
-F Brown
This is solely my opinion... but it comes from someone who has managed advertising and creative departments, taught college graphic design, made a living as a freelance illustrator, and spent 15 years in the industry:
Freehand is and will always be superior to Illustrator.
Ask anyone who isn't a casual user and who actually has to live by these apps.
Freehand is vastly more intuitive.
Again, this is just my opinion.
I agree.
-F Brown
OMG!! Im still under total shock! i would rather have seem Macromedia buy out Adobe, liked Macromedia much more! But lets hope this doesnt mean the end of some Apple versions of macromedia software.
So much to look forward 2... Not...
Adobe Golive suxz, really bloated code, never updated, pricey... I've had golive since version 3.0. Per release, there's usually only one update, regardless of bugs. Abode just doesn't care about updating the thing or fixing the bugs they have in it... It's quite pathetic that I feel the need to update only because the app just can't seem to handle making web pages, or rendering them, just to find out it's still crashing.
GoLive in itself has made me loath Adobe and hope for Apple to compete.
I'm so very tired of these crap products that cost so GD much.
...and I'm not all that impressed by photoshop either. I can't wait for OS 10.4 which sould help find us more competition when dealing with graphics...
Adobe Golive suxz, really bloated code, never updated, pricey... I've had golive since version 3.0. Per release, there's usually only one update, regardless of bugs. Abode just doesn't care about updating the thing or fixing the bugs they have in it... It's quite pathetic that I feel the need to update only because the app just can't seem to handle making web pages, or rendering them, just to find out it's still crashing.
GoLive in itself has made me loath Adobe and hope for Apple to compete.
I'm so very tired of these crap products that cost so GD much.
...and I'm not all that impressed by photoshop either. I can't wait for OS 10.4 which sould help find us more competition when dealing with graphics...
I bet Adobe releases the next version of Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Freehand, etc under the Macromedia name because development is probally near complete on the next versions of those apps. After that release, Adobe will probally start to consolidate products.
Dreamweaver is a better name than Go Live. Go Live sounds like a video/broadcast application. I've never used Fireworks, but anything would be better than ImageReady.
Dreamweaver is a better name than Go Live. Go Live sounds like a video/broadcast application. I've never used Fireworks, but anything would be better than ImageReady.
broken_keyboard said:
Eee... sorry but no!
Unless you can start building "intelligent" PDF file which would require some scripting. Then, you end up with something that look more like a web page then a PDF file... IMO
But the REAL question is : What will happen the SoundEdit 16???
I want my SE 16 back!!!!
How's this for unfounded speculation? Adobe is forced to sell off Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and FreeHand for copyright reasons. Apple buys them, and makes "lite" versions to integrate with the iApps, and "pro" versions to complete the Final Cut suite.
FreeHand
I don't know about the other Macromedia apps, but I wouldn't expect any more from FreeHand. I used to be on the FreeHand team at Macromedia and FreeHand has long since been moved into "maintenance mode." Macromedia essentially moved FreeHand to India about a year ago and were already planning on letting it die a slow death.
According to my sources inside Macromedia, FireWorks was also transitioned to India last Fall and placed in "maintenance mode."
I don't know about the other Macromedia apps, but I wouldn't expect any more from FreeHand. I used to be on the FreeHand team at Macromedia and FreeHand has long since been moved into "maintenance mode." Macromedia essentially moved FreeHand to India about a year ago and were already planning on letting it die a slow death.
According to my sources inside Macromedia, FireWorks was also transitioned to India last Fall and placed in "maintenance mode."
OMG, there goes competition in graphics software. Adobe is reaching monopoly status in graphics market. Hopefully the won't mess with Flash or Dreamweaver too much, especially since GoLive is TERRIBLE.