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How Big Can Apple Get?
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Demon said:
http://www.apple.com.cn - Apple's Chinese site.
Here's the link to the Asian Apple Store with all the places you can buy Apple products in Asia: http://www.asia.apple.com/buy/
Unemployed Chinese don't buy very many computers, you know. Everyone complains about using chinese labor without considering whether or not the Chinese like making a living. Maybe we should instead worry about their economy growing to the point where the average guy can afford to buy a computer.
Hmm I wonder if apple will ever go after photo shop. It seemed to me there were some implied threats(relating core image) to adobe and some of the recent keynotes. Would abode pull off the mac if apple made a photo shop competitor?
At the moment, Apple needs Quark & Adobe more than they need Apple...
Look at how annoyed Apple got when Quark dragged their heels on an OS X version...
If Pshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Indesign & QuarkXpress suddenly became unavailable for Mac, tens of thousands of studios would dump their Macs & go with PCs (albeit reluctantly)
Look at how annoyed Apple got when Quark dragged their heels on an OS X version...
If Pshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Indesign & QuarkXpress suddenly became unavailable for Mac, tens of thousands of studios would dump their Macs & go with PCs (albeit reluctantly)
Bakey said:Anyway, the rest [as we know] is history... Macromedia became bored [as it does with most of its products, eg. Authorware & Director - I simply CAN NOT get on with Flash!!!!] and ditched the puppy hence it being snatched by Apple, and so with it we said goodbye to the Windows version...
TTFN
Interestingly, back in the last century, Flash was called Future Splash and was made by a company called FutureWave who had their roots in Apple computing. I still have a FutureSplash 1.0 disk somewhere.
There's a really good history here - some of it I didn't know.
What's not mentioned though is they sold SmartSketch to Broderbund, who sadly never did anything with. As a cartoonist at the time, I was hoping they would.
Blue Velvet said:
You got that right. It's almost to the point now that we don't really care whether we get Quark or Adobe files in on Mac or PC (well, I care, but my boss doesn't). If Quark and Adobe decided to ditch, that'd be a severe head shot to Apple. I'm not convinced they survive that one, at least not as anything other than a consumer electronics company that made good computers "back in the day."
Blue Velvet said:
Yeah, but don't you think Apple would do something about this before they'd let something like this happen? Like buying either one?
iGAV said:I'd rather quit design than use PC's.
Well, I did say reluctantly...
I guess there's always waxing up layouts for camera...
Diatribe said:
It wouldn't be that simple.
Adobe's value is half of Apple's according to an earlier post on this thread. That's a lot of change to suddenly dump on the table.
It would have to be a takeover bid and then you have the shareholders to deal with...
Do you think that Adobe would let their crown jewels be prised away that easily?
Blue Velvet said:
I know it wouldn't be easy and I know Adobe wouldn't go without putting up one hell of a fight but Apple is building up a big cash pile right now. In a few years Apple could be buying Adobe just like that if they'd need to.
I too found that Steve Jobs' comment about Adobe building Core Image into their next photoshop sounded something like a threat. I'm just saying that Apple wouldn't just let Adobe or Quark pull out. Quark actually would be a lot easier to buy.
As to the original question... if Apple could get a pro CAD app on OSX then they would get even more business customers.
I think if/when Adobe implements Core Image/Video into their apps Apple would get a huge boost as well as these versions would be the fastest by far.
Diatribe said:
It has been said that Adobe will not support Core Image because that's too much effort as there's nothing currently equivalent on PCs... Windows sales of Pshop are far greater than Macs, sad but true.
Apple have no interest in Quark... Quark do a lot more than Xpress. They also have a substantial business in supplying Enterprise solutions to big corporate publishers... something that Adobe is weak on esp. in regards to Indesign.
munkle said:
how would that work then?
i believe he said they make more off a Mac than they do from a PC.
due to Microsofts investment in Apple and stuff like VPC, Office etc.
Mwuhahahaha
"Of interest, according to the article, Apple approached Adobe in 1998 to develop consumer targeted Video/Photo software, but Adobe said "no"... which triggered Apple's decision to develop its own software (FCP, iPhoto, iMovie)."
Um, yeaaaah. I'm sure that's how the conversation went. I know that's a paraphrase but it was more likely:
SJ: So, do you want to be a part of the greatness? Do you? 'Cause we see a market for some bitchin' consumer apps. Maybe video and photos? Sorta like iTunes.
Adobe: Well, that sounds interesting. How do you propose we work together?
SJ: Well, I was thinking that you build the applications and sell them to us on the cheap. That way we can bundle them with our Macs.
Adobe: Why would we want to do that when we can milk hapless fools with our "CS" suite? It's our answer to Macromedia's "MX" moniker, and we think it's a profitable one...
SJ: ... now see here, man. You want the greatness. You CRAVE the greatness. Why not embrace this?
Abobe: Frankly, you only sell 3% of all new computers. You're asking to devote a ton of resources to sell low-margin comercial apps on a system that only goes to 3% of the potential market?
SJ: Yes. And you should thank me for the offer.
Abobe: Bugger off, Steve. We'll stick to our fancy-pant "CS" suite. Good day.
The moral of the story: Steve Jobs is a genius. One of the major reasons why people buy and STAY with Macs is because of the iLife suite. Adobe had no real interest in this because it didn't suit them. It does suit Apple. Oh, and Steve has a ego that outshines the sun.
"Of interest, according to the article, Apple approached Adobe in 1998 to develop consumer targeted Video/Photo software, but Adobe said "no"... which triggered Apple's decision to develop its own software (FCP, iPhoto, iMovie)."
Um, yeaaaah. I'm sure that's how the conversation went. I know that's a paraphrase but it was more likely:
SJ: So, do you want to be a part of the greatness? Do you? 'Cause we see a market for some bitchin' consumer apps. Maybe video and photos? Sorta like iTunes.
Adobe: Well, that sounds interesting. How do you propose we work together?
SJ: Well, I was thinking that you build the applications and sell them to us on the cheap. That way we can bundle them with our Macs.
Adobe: Why would we want to do that when we can milk hapless fools with our "CS" suite? It's our answer to Macromedia's "MX" moniker, and we think it's a profitable one...
SJ: ... now see here, man. You want the greatness. You CRAVE the greatness. Why not embrace this?
Abobe: Frankly, you only sell 3% of all new computers. You're asking to devote a ton of resources to sell low-margin comercial apps on a system that only goes to 3% of the potential market?
SJ: Yes. And you should thank me for the offer.
Abobe: Bugger off, Steve. We'll stick to our fancy-pant "CS" suite. Good day.
The moral of the story: Steve Jobs is a genius. One of the major reasons why people buy and STAY with Macs is because of the iLife suite. Adobe had no real interest in this because it didn't suit them. It does suit Apple. Oh, and Steve has a ego that outshines the sun.
Blue Velvet said:
Where do you got this info from?
Mac's still have a very important marketshare in the prepress and press industry. Almost every single serious photographer I know off uses a Mac. It is these sorts of people who actually buy Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. True, there are more PC's in press envirements now, than years ago. And True, the market share will be higher for PC than for Mac, simply because of the higher global PC marketshare (96% worldwide)
Then again, from the 100% Mac users, I think a lot, I don't know how much, but at least 50% has a legal Photoshop licence. While I highly doubt that that 50% of the PC users have a photoshop licence. maybe only 5%
If you add all those things up, PC will still have higher sales on Photoshop, but DO NOT underestimate the sales for Mac.. I think Adobe needs Mac more than most people think..
It's just plain normal.. If the Mac platform only had 4% or less share in the total Adobe sales, Adobe will probably stop with supporting the mac platform. However, my estimates are that Mac photoshop, illustrator and indesign have something of 30% of the total sales for this product! even when it is 20% that's a lot of money to just "throw away"...
Porchland said:
You make an EXCELLENT point. Apple is at the point in it's development that large aqcuisitions are possible. I doubt they'd kill the PC versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. but they sure as hell would make the Mac versions superior. In time, they'll prune the tree... but not for years, which would probably be dictated in the deal anyway.
I have used bot cs for windows and mac. Not in depth since I am pretty new at them but the mac versions sure seem more solid and have less import problems then I have had on the windows version. Sure hope that is an indication that adobe is in the mac for the long haul.
Wouldn't it be easier rather than harder to just include Core Image into Adobe's products because it is much less code. They will get killed in the Mac market if they ignore Core Image. Anyways, the next version of Windows might even try to copy that Core Image technology and call it DirectX Plus!
Frobozz said:
When I posted the idea that Apple buy Adobe, I was thinking about more from the standpoint of shoring up Apple's product offerings for graphic design. It didn't even occur to me what a great insulator it would be against Photoshop potentially no longer being available for Mac.
Quark is privately held, so I don't have any idea what it would cost Apple to buy it or whether the owners would part with it, but an acquisition of Adobe makes more sense in terms of product offerings. With Quark, Apple would get QuarkXPress, which still has tremendous traction in publishing, but not much else.
Macromedia would give Apple some great web tools but nothing on the graphic design side to speak of.
Adobe would give Apple the No. 1 photo-editing application, Illustrator and GoLive (which could use some serious improvement) and takes Premiere out of FCP's path. Plus, Acrobat would be a huge catch for Apple, as it's already an industry standard that goes into the PC platform.
I think Apple is going to continue to tease PC users with little bites like iTunes. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see iChat for PC as a free download at some point in time.
Blue Velvet said:
That is fascinating! To read the section about Adobe's competition/relationship with Apple, it almost reads like Adobe is some kind of Apple business unit. Adobe doesn't expect Apple to go after the professional photo editing market. Adobe isn't going to use Premiere to compete with Apple in the NLE market.
What a seamless merger that would be. Apple could just drop Premiere altogether and make a dumbed-down version of FCP on PC to draw PC users over from the dark side. Same with Photoshop. GoLive could be beefed up into a serious competitor for the Macromedia products. Totally seamless.
iGAV said:I'd rather quit design than use PC's.
And there goes, once again, reality!
Adobe, with Apple or no Apple, has one of the most important products in the software market today: PHOTOSHOP is the king.
And then if you add After Effects, Illustrator, etc, you realize they did not make a mistake when they say 'no' to Apple... on the contrary... imagine Photoshop only for Macs????? They would have not sold half of what they had sold now... and Paint Shop Pro would be the king today!
Earendil said:Are you implying you work there?
You guys are my heros
++++++++++++++ Ditto in a big way. The job you guys did with "The Trilogy". I'm straight and all but I would give each and every one of you guys a big wet one on the lips for your work. You guys rock. Can't wait to see how King Kong turns out.