Still think I'm over reacting?

[serpicolugnut]

OK, I took a bit of flack a few months ago for suggesting that since Adobe was dropping Premiere for the Mac, that we should be wary of Adobe "reconsidering" Mac support in it's other key applications (PS, AI, ID and GL).

Most of you thought I was jumping the gun a bit (which I was, but that's not the point), and thought it next to impossible that Adobe would even consider going that route....

Well, take a look at this post on ThinkSecret about how Adobe feels about Apple, and how concerned they are about Apple developing their own creative suite.

ThinkSecret Story

From the story...

"Apple can be unpredictable," Adobe's plans say, according to a source. "We will need to keep a close eye on Apple."

Further more....

Microsoft is another company Adobe will be watching. Adobe believes that with Microsoft's industry resources, it could quickly develop a Creative Suite competitor. However, sources said Adobe views Apple as a greater threat.

So Adobe is already twitching that Apple might develop their own PS, AI or ID competitors. Remember, Adobe dropped Premiere from the Mac primarily due to Apple having FCP.

It's pretty telling that Adobe views Apple a greater threat than Microsoft, considering Microsoft is already attempting to supplant .PDF with .DOC for the portable document standard.

And now, for the unspoken conspiracy theories...

Remember Caffeine Software? They made a program called "TIffany". It was created during the NeXT days, and was considered a Photoshop competitor. Many of it's users still claim that it outshines Photoshop in many areas of functionality. Well, Caffeine Software disappeared earlier this year. No warning. No notice as to why.

There's a strong suspicion that Apple hired the main developer away to work on a Photoshop competitor, that may/may not be in Apple's immediate plans. It could be to provide a trump card in case Adobe ever threatened PS extinction, or it might be part of Apple's plan to actually offer a PS type competitor to Mac users.

Truth be told, there are several smaller products out there that could be ramped up and retooled to compete with Adobe's apps if Apple was under the gun to do so (Stone Studio's Create would make a good starting point for a serious Illustrator competitor).

[Jason]

much better

i personally dont think apple would touch ps, ai and id... fcp was another factor, it had to do with macs being billed as professional machines, and they needed something integrated i believe...

but, lets wait and see i guess, i hope adobe doesnt abandon ship

[hulkaros]

Adobe IS valuable to Apple... Still, if Apple will offer something better than ANY given Adobe comparable product and Adobe will abandon the Apple platform, they will be SO full of HUGE B$...

They should improve their products instead of abandoning a platform just because a better product exists...

[Pengu]

I agree hulkaros.
I'm not sure I'd like to see a world where Apple has its OWN apps for doing EVERYTHING (although this would be kinda cool) because you would ultimately get the argument (from a buyers point of view) that they dont have any of the "main" applications (people never think of what they want to do, they think of what they want to use...)

[fryke]

Let's look at that quote again...

QUOTE: "Apple can be unpredictable," Adobe's plans say, according to a source. "We will need to keep a close eye on Apple."

Well, that's nothing we - or Apple - should be afraid of. The phrase instead means that Adobe is a bit afraid of Apple. FCP showed them that they're not, as they probably believed for a long time, safe.
A few years ago, we wouldn't have thought that Apple would try and attack other companies on the software market. But I think Steve Jobs (and his people at Apple) did the right thing. Apple needed profits. And the machines alone didn't cut it. So you had a basis. Apple lost money. Apple was a good hardware company. But also a good software company. However, they made no MONEY with their software, although they could. Now there was another problem: Too many players in the consumer area. So what to do? Yep. Destroy competition à la Microsoft. But better still. While Microsoft usually just killed competition by making their pro versions available for free (an old story, don't wanna go there), Apple made good and free consumer versions and even better, expensive (but still cheaper than the competition) pro versions. iMovie & Final Cut Pro. iDVD and DVD Studio Pro. They bought stuff and made it better. Now, they're suddenly looked at as a software vendor, too!

Back to Adobe... What if Apple were to say: "Hey, we've watched Adobe do Photoshop long enough. They didn't always go where we wanted. Let's do that better." (Won't happen, I guess.) Well: Photoshop would, after YEARS, finally get some competition again. And that would be good for the customer. Remember: Competition's good.

Even if Apple got 30% of the 'Photoshop'-Market with their new product, Adobe would still sell lots of Photoshop licenses. And quite certainly, Adobe wouldn't leave the Mac market - only to see Apple open up their minds and say: "Hey! We can do this on Windows, too!"

[pds]

Originally posted by fryke
"Hey! We can do this on Windows, too!"

That would be the bomb! Maybe they could shake up everyone by porting FCP! Now that would make Adobe mad!

[Urbansory]

FCP is way better... Apple making a Photoshop type app, that i don't see happening, Apple needs the user base of Adobe products. If anything, Apple is forcing companies to up their game, what better way to force better products than through good ole competition. I remember MacPaint, was that by Apple? A lot of people are using Fireworks more and more, it opens PS files, it's a threat to Photoshop when it comes to lower end users, but not for the high end user.

My PS is like a Swiss Army knife, it has the tools to suit all my needs, yet it gets better.

[mindbend]

"Photoshop 8, Illustrator 11, InDesign 3, GoLive 7"

Apple has nothing that even comes close to competing with those packages. Photoshop cannot be beat by anyone, anywhere. AI is tough to beat too. Apple would be insane to get into the InDesign/Quark mix. Apple might be well suited to create or buy a low end HTML GUI editor, or maybe even a higher end package that is tightly integrated with X's Apache/Perl/etc. abilities, but I doubt they would bother.

FCP is a different story, because FCP sells boxes. An Apple branded HTML editor isn't going to sell boxes. For those who think/wish FCP would be ported to Windows, perish the thought. It will NEVER happen.

Yes, Apple is a competitor to Adobe in some areas. All Adobe is saying is that they need to monitor that for profitability. To me, there is no implication that they will wipe out Adobe Mac apps as part of that strategy unless (like Premiere) they believe they can no longer profit from it.