Zdnet makes a suggestion for Adobe, quit mac environment altogether

[clevin]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=12126&tag=content;wrapper

Starting today, Adobe should announce that as of a future date — let’s call this April 1st, 2012 or 2013, ... that support for all of their Macintosh applications will cease.

As of today, Adobe should announce that it will complete development on Mac versions of products in progress, but after they are released, they will no longer develop anything more for Mac or for Apple device platforms.

To be nice to their loyal customers, they should offer competitive cross-license upgrades and transfers to Windows, and possibly consider Linux a strategic next-generation platform for content creation as well.

I personally would love to see adobe playing some hardball in this game. With its dominance in the whole computer industry, i doubt quitting mac market (5%) really hurt them that much.

 

[rdowns]

Grow a set Adobe. Do it!

 

[Eidorian]

It's not terribly surprising. There have been a few suggestions here already.

 

[MacDawg]

I am not sure it would be that easy to do

 

[LethalWolfe]

I love how the article completely glosses over all the the architecture changes that Adobe has had to contend w/on the Mac over the past 10yrs and that Apple's ProApps have been going head to head w/Adobe for about the same length of time. Premiere Pro was originally PC only and a Mac version only came out once Mac sales started to increase.

I personally would love to see adobe playing some hardball in this game. With its dominance in the whole computer industry, i doubt quitting mac market (5%) really hurt them that much.

There problem there is that Macs are much more popular w/creative professionals than w/the general population and that shops that are Mac-centrict aren't going to scrap their entire workflow and IT infrastructure to follow Adobe to Windows-only land. They'll just use the last version of their Adobe Apps until someone inevitably fills in the void in the future. PS and AE are pretty much 'standard issue' on any editing machine but do you really think all the FCP users out there are going to switch to Windows? Or all the Avid-based Mac users who nearly revolted against Avid 7 or 8 years ago when Avid mentioned the idea of going PC only? Also, giving a deadline basically tells the competition exactly when they need to get their product to market.


Lethal

 

[Eidorian]

I'd like to raise a small, interesting point. To this day people still ask me if Photoshop comes standard with your Mac and are shocked to learn that it doesn't. Immediately afterward they ask me why I bought a Mac if I'm not using Photoshop...

 

[DaveSW]

Adobe is a public company. I don't think it's fiscally responsible for them to do this specially when their Mac software division is a large chunk of their revenue.

 

[rdowns]

I personally would love to see adobe playing some hardball in this game. With its dominance in the whole computer industry, i doubt quitting mac market (5%) really hurt them that much.

Just because Macs have ~5% market share doesn't mean that only 5% of Adobe's sales are Mac apps. I'd bet Mac apps are a sizable portion of their business.

 

[Hmac]

I think abandonment of the Mac platform is inevitable anyway. Only a matter of time.

I think it would be fascinating to see Apple's response if Adobe finally did grow a pair and formally throw down the gauntlet, instead of just persisting in their increasingly half-(hearted) Mac support of the last few years. I suspect that Apple would be better at such a high level of brinksmanship than Adobe.

 

[djellison]

Adobe is a public company. I don't think it's fiscally responsible for them to do this specially when their Mac software division is a large chunk of their revenue.

It must cost, approx. the same to develop for both mac and pc.

And there is far far less Mac market than PC.

If I were them - I'd drop Mac altogether - or go to Photoshop only, and drop Premiere, AFX, Flash, Audition etc etc.

 

[Scooterman1]

It would be an interesting turn of events if the Computer World started treating Apple like Apple treats them. It may be just a matter of time.

 

[maflynn]

At one point just as Jobs had [re]taken over the helm of Apple I thought adobe was going to quit the Mac platform. They had shifted their emphasis over to the windows platform and until recently produced windows product updates, then delayed the mac platform.

While I wholeheartedly disagree with such a move, as it will hurt apple more then adobe, I think giving the mac platform its proper focus for adobe products is what's required, i.e., produce a fast and bug free version of flash.

 

[bigjnyc]

After Steve Job's comments I'd love to see Adobe grow a pair and do it. I'm sure there will be many replacements but some Adobe products are such industry standards that it will be really tough to replace them. Apple may even lose a lot of professional customers.... Not that they would care since they stopped catering to the proffesional market a while ago anyways.

 

[LethalWolfe]

And there is far far less Mac market than PC.

If Adobe's primary focus was the general computing population I would agree. But it's not. Adobe's primary focus is creative professionals which skews much more Mac-centric than the general population.

It would be an interesting turn of events if the Computer World started treating Apple like Apple treats them. It may be just a matter of time.

You mean like when the Mac platform was struggling w/only a couple percent of the market, people thought the end was near and third party support was diminishing which pretty much forced Apple to develop a bunch of first party apps to combat they "there's not very much software available for the Mac" stigma?


Lethal

 

[djellison]

produce a fast and bug free version of flash.

Why bother - Apple still wouldn't include it on iPhone/iPad

 

[*LTD*]

I hope Adobe does it. There go the most well-heeled users with the most disposable income.

YouTube (owned by Google) is already moving toward HTML5, and Vimeo too. Does that mean Adobe wants to spite Google as well? Not smart.

 

[jaw04005]

I personally would love to see adobe playing some hardball in this game. With its dominance in the whole computer industry, i doubt quitting mac market (5%) really hurt them that much.

And Adobe shareholders are glad you don’t run Adobe.

Just because Macs have ~5% market share doesn't mean that only 5% of Adobe's sales are Mac apps. I'd bet Mac apps are a sizable portion of their business.

According to Adobe’s John Nack, Mac users account for closer to 50 percent of Photoshop’s marketshare. Similar comments have been made about the Mac platform in the past by other top ranking Adobe executives including former CEO Bruce Chizen.

"I just can't see the hoopla over Mac OS that only has 3-7% of market. Use your resources on something more people use. Get with the 64 bit and release a Vista 64 version of Photoshop CS3. We need it NOW!

[The Mac is closer to 50% of our (Photoshop's) market share. --J.]”

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/04/photoshop_lr_64.html

 

[niuniu]

Would absolutely love to see Adobe grow a backbone and stick it to Jobs as opposed to that miserable effort at public grovelling we had last week. Call of all future version of PS, ID etc on the Mac.

It'll never happen though, although Adobe holds enough good cards to make a play, it's too big a play to risk over the Flash alone.

 

[localoid]

I'd like to raise a small, interesting point. To this day people still ask me if Photoshop comes standard with your Mac and are shocked to learn that it doesn't. Immediately afterward they ask me why I bought a Mac if I'm not using Photoshop...

In years gone by, about the only time most people would ever see a Mac it was being used by someone doing photography, design, or publishing related work.

 

[Peace]

Ziff-Davis publishing suggested this. Ha! They are the mouthpiece for the PC side. They would like to see Macs gone altogether.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I personally would love to see adobe playing some hardball in this game. With its dominance in the whole computer industry, i doubt quitting mac market (5%) really hurt them that much.

5%..??
LOL... where did you get that figure? Most Windows users haven't ever used Photoshop. And most Mac users have.

M$ Office will be 5% Mac, and 95% Windows, yes, but not Photoshop

 

[NT1440]

Absurdly stupid suggestion. Adobe's base is near if not more than 50% macs.

Why anyone thinks this whole flash squabble will spill into other areas is beyond me, both companies know they depend upon each other outside the realm of flash.

 

[miles01110]

Why anyone thinks this whole flash squabble will spill into other areas is beyond me, both companies know they depend upon each other outside the realm of flash.

Agreed. What viable alternative has the same level of industry integration as the Adobe Suite? Nothing.

 

[DaveSW]

It must cost, approx. the same to develop for both mac and pc.

And there is far far less Mac market than PC.

If I were them - I'd drop Mac altogether - or go to Photoshop only, and drop Premiere, AFX, Flash, Audition etc etc.

Most Adobe users are Mac users. you can't just drop Mac support specially when you're a public company. You are accountable to your shareholders.

 

[MikhailT]

It must cost, approx. the same to develop for both mac and pc.

And there is far far less Mac market than PC.

If I were them - I'd drop Mac altogether - or go to Photoshop only, and drop Premiere, AFX, Flash, Audition etc etc.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

The market share of the computer industry has nothing to do with Adobe's revenue, they make money off their software, not hardware or OS platform.
Even if the PC's market share is at 90%, it doesn't mean everybody is using it. It's more like 10% or less of that 90% are paying for Adobe's software. So it isn't really that easy to drop one platform just because the other has a tiny market share. Think instead of assuming wrong things.

As somebody already stated, nearly half of the Photoshop "paying" users are Mac users. Which means if they were to drop Mac support, they'll instantly lose 50% of their revenue from Photoshop. Don't expect Mac users to automatically switch to Windows to get their Photoshop fix. Apple actually might take advantage of this and produce their own Photoshop app and guess who'll be making money instead of getting hurt?