Sorry, Brandon; Apple's not buying Adobe

Brandon Watts of OSWeekly.com has posted an editorial piece on why it would make sense for Apple to acquire Adobe. My response: not happening.

See, you make good points for why Apple would buy Adobe, but couldn't you make similar points for Microsoft or even Google?

And there's another problem with your argument for Apple (or Microsoft) buying us. Adobe is committed to offering equal products across platforms. It's very important that the products we ship for Windows are just as good on OS X or even Linux and vice-versa. Sure sure, we'd still obviously release products for Windows and Linux... but don't you think the (indirect) pressure would be on for the products for those two platforms to not be of the same quality of those for the Mac? How about those anti-trust issues in Microsoft and Apple's operating systems division sharing development information with the software division in the '80s? Apple spun off their applications business into Claris (now FileMaker), and there was a lot of pressure on Microsoft to do a similar thing -- something they obviously didn't do.

Wouldn't an Apple acquisition of Adobe just refuel the fire for these issues?

Interestingly, an acquisition by Google avoids all of these cross platform related issues. Hmm. But don't worry -- we're not being acquired by Microsoft or Apple. Okay, Brandon?

Redmond Developer News: AIR Gaining Ground

The title sounds a bit nicer than the article actually is. Though I must admit, you know you've got something good when the journal 'powering the Windows software revolution' actually mentions you.

Of course, Adobe is 'trying to catch up to Silverlight.' How many times do I have to remind these people that Silverlight is trying to catch up with Flash!

And Mr. Desmond, AIR is not just an extension of Flash Player for desktop applications. It's a full runtime that also allows you to use JavaScript/HTML (and of course AJAX), as well as Flash and PDF content. Plus, you can mix these together. Want to put a Flash filter on some text via JavaScript? Easily done!

However, my favorite part is the idea that people have to "buy into Flash" to use AIR. Again, not so. But what can be expected from an analyst from Directions on Microsoft?

I mean, come on! Try doing some research before you go and blast Adobe. I don't care how much you like Silverlight. I just can't see it passing Flash in terms of market penetration, which is over 99.1%. Yeah, 99.1% of Internet connected computers on Windows, Mac, Linux and others have Flash. And the only holdouts are people like you and Microsoft fanboys. Oh, and people who still have DOS or Windows 3.11 (but they shouldn't count).

And don't even think about preinstalling Silverlight with Vista SP1, Steve. I'll have the EU and US Government at your door instantaneously. Oh, wait... they're already there.

Adobe Office: Something I'd want to try.

Remember a few months ago when everyone was going bananas about how we were going to rival MicrosoftWord or something, and we flatly denied it? And then we bought Virtual Ubiquity, creators of Buzzword, a Flash-based -- you guessed it -- Microsoft Word alternative?

Now some guy with crappy Photoshop skills thinks he's found out our master plan. "Adobe Office" will be built with Flash and Flex, will run on AIR, and will have an online version to boot.

I must admit, it's a pretty good plan. I bet it would be great for AIR 1.0 adoption. Hmm. Maybe we'll start working on it... maybe we won't.

Oh and by the way, Leopard people; a compatibility update for Lightroom CS3 will be pushed mid-November. We're working on it.

Adobe: Empowering the Future Generation

You know, I get a lot of email and regular mail complaining about Adobe's "high" prices for software. And I understand. Basically. So, every once in a while I'll have someone complain about how we're not helping the next generation learn this stuff due to our prices.

You know, over the past few days, I've taken a look at that area. And you know what? You people who have told me this are 100% correct. So Adobe took a major step about a week ago (sorry for the late entry) in announcing that it is preparing to give Flex Builder (the SDK of which, Flex, is open source) away to students and faculty. All they have to do is prove who they are with the general yada yada.

If you're wondering why we didn't pick Photoshop or Dreamweaver, here's why. Adobe is betting its future on rich Internet applications and AIR, which we encourage are built in Flex rather than in Flash (though Flex is just merely a branch of the Flash overall platform). If we're going after the future generation, why not give them the future tools?

Oh, and also, this gives us an edge over Microsoft. Like they'd ever give anything away. You know kids -- "Oooh! Adobe gave us expensive software for free! We love you Adobe! We don't want Adobe to go away, so we don't like Microsoft." Maybe a bit too deep, but the idea is there at least.

According to this InfoWorld story, it'll be on our website next month (which is, like, two days away).

Good morning.

I'm Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe Systems, Inc., creator of standards in the world.

PDF? Ours. Flash? Ours. Photoshop? Ours. Dreamweaver? Ours. The term 'rich Internet application' or RIA? We created it.

And I haven't even gotten started.

At Adobe, we're building up our warchest to take on Microsoft because, honestly, we hate them. They tried to squash us like 20 years ago. Our stock collapsed. Then the whole anti-trust stuff started. We bounced back up. They failed. We want revenge. Silverlight? I've made it clear that we at Adobe think Silverlight is just an imitator of what Flash used to be.

And it's obvious that Microsoft doesn't even like Silverlight. You know, the website for Halo 3 runs Flash? Didn't they make a big deal about how it runs Silverlight? Well, there is a Halo 3 website running on Silverlight. It's so hidden, I could barely find it! You have to go to the Silverlight.net Showcase, find the little Halo 3 icon towards the bottom, click on it, and then click on the View Now button. (by the way, the box that pops up and blurs the screen behind it? totally a copy of our Flex/Flash alert box)

Now, I must get back to Buzzword. Shantanu and I are collaboratively working with some of our engineers on our OS X Leopard FAQ. Apparently some people are upset because our products don't work on Leopard. It's not our fault that Apple doesn't like us because we compete with Final Cut with Premiere!