“Apple Computer and Adobe Systems long have been allies in their underdog struggles against Microsoft. But in the aftermath of Apple’s recent shift to Intel chips, some of Apple’s most ardent fans are aiming bitter attacks at Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and Illustrator graphics programs,” Jon Fortt blogs for Business 2.0. “Their assertion: Adobe is taking too long to release a version of its graphics suite that fully utilizes the new Intel chips.”
Fortt reports, “A typical complaint was posted Tuesday on MacDailyNews, a site whose readers tend to be the most loyal supporters of Apple’s Mac platform. ‘Adobe has known about the switch to Intel LONG before the public did, and they STILL don’t have a Universal version of Photoshop,’ wrote a poster identified as mudflapper. ‘If it wasn’t for diehard Mac designers, photographers and retouchers, Adobe wouldn’t even BE here today.'”
“Though the posts on the MacDailyNews site were by no means uniformly critical — several posters defended Adobe — there was a familiar theme to the attacks. Adobe should be working faster, many implied, because loyal Mac users supported the company in the old days when Adobe was struggling. Apple is a powerful company now, and doesn’t have to take this kind of treatment from Adobe. Some have asserted that Apple buy Adobe. Others have suggested that Apple release more of its own graphics programs to compete with Adobe’s dominant offerings,” Fortt reports.
“Apple has the most to lose from the recent sport of Adobe bashing. Apple wants to rebuild its pro desktop business, and to do that it needs the support of strong pro software players. To grow market share, Apple will need to lure Web designers and cross-platform designers to the Mac — many of those folks use Windows now,” Fortt writes.
“They’re just not going to make the switch if the apps they use (such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash) aren’t supported on the Mac. Adobe gets the sale whether they stay on Windows or make the switch,” Fortt writes. “So Mac fans would be wise to pipe down. Yes, I know it’s frustrating to wait for apps. But sometimes in software, as in politics, diplomacy gets you better long-term results than dropping bombs.”
Full article here.
Pipe down?! Puleeze. Here’s a little business note upfront: Apple Computer. Inc. market value: $67,522,530,080. Adobe Systems, Inc. market value: $21,811,881,140.
Now, in the full article, Fortt seems to severely underestimate the Mac’s market share of the publishing and design markets. Adobe’s Mac customers should never “pipe down” if they are unsatisfied. No unsatisfied customer of any other company should keep quiet or be told to keep quiet, either. The customer is always right (unless you’re Adobe and your customers use Macs). Sorry, but that attitude just doesn’t cut it with us.
Adobe is painfully, obviously, and woefully late with support for Intel-powered Apple Macs. Adobe needs to shut up and start coding. And use Xcode this time.
Hint for Adobe: You should do something meaningful for the Mac users you’ve negatively impacted with your incompetence.
We believe that Adobe isn’t as attentive to Mac users as they should be. It’s up to Adobe to change our minds.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Adobe manager lashes out at loyal Mac-using customers – October 31, 2006
Adobe Soundbooth audio software released as public beta – October 26, 2006
Apple and Adobe at war? – October 06, 2006
Analyst expects Adobe Creative Suite 3 release on May 1, 2007 – October 04, 2006
How long must we wait for Adobe to produce Universal applications for Apple’s Intel-powered Macs? – August 21, 2006
Adobe CS3 sneak peek shown on Apple MacBook Pro as Universal Binary application – May 25, 2006
Cringely: Apple must replace Microsoft Office, buy Adobe Systems for attack on Microsoft to succeed – April 28, 2006
Adobe CEO: Universal version of Photoshop due in spring 2007 – April 21, 2006
Adobe software engineer explains why Photoshop for Intel-based Macs is taking so long – March 24, 2006
Should Apple buy Adobe as leverage against Microsoft? – December 16, 2005
Adobe prefers (and promotes) PCs over Macs – March 24, 2003
Adobe has been in bed with Microsoft so long the’re confused that Apple users are like Winduhs users who will blindly and contentedly wait for YEARS for an upgrade (and then only upgrade only when forced to when it does come out).
Yes, Apple has us spoiled. We like our upgrades on time and in sync with the rest of what we’re using. That’s what we’re accustomed to on this platform. Probably why we’re more demanding than others.
MDN magic word: “example” as in Apple sets the example for the rest of the world.
“God bless Apple and Adobe.”
Well, why not? God’s a corporate fascist. If He isn’t, then He has limits.
LISTEN TO ME!! INSIDE KNOWLEDGE!!!
It’s NOT Adobe’s fault, it’s Microsoft’s!!!
With the Apple switch to Intel processors, Adobe is now going to make one build of CS3 with just the slight tweaks to make it run on either Mac O X or Windows Vista.
Since Microsoft has been dragging their ass with Vista it has hampered Adobe’s work at CS3.
So it’s a double edged sword, the longer Vista takes to ship the more Windows users consider a Mac, however CS3 gets delayed.
UNDERSTAND NOW?
By the way CS2 runs decently under Rosetta on a Mac Pro, laptops always suck for performance apps anyway, always have.
So now you know the truth, quit Adobe bashing.
Dopes! You people have NO IDEA what it takes to change software as complex as Adobe’s apps. And no, Adobe did NOT know about the Intel switch before we did. That’s a stupid assertion that belies an ignorance of Apple’s secrecy.
I have a Mac Pro and the Creative Suite works just fine for the most part on it. Bridge only likes to be quit using the pull-down menu. But that’s abou the only issue I can think of. Photoshop is defniitely slower than on my previous Quad G5. But it’s more than usable. And I look forward to a major speed-up when CS3 comes out. But stop making us Mac users look like idiots!!!!!!!
What a bunch of nut cases.
Jack
I hope you see the irony of your post.
Also, what is this “MacDailyNews” they are quoting? Anyone ever heard of it?
Ya’ll are crazy about Apply buying Adobe. Do you really think that they want to be in the business of making Windows software? Lots of windows folks use Adobe, you know…
If you remember, PhotoShop – Adobe’s flag ship program- was the last Adobe program to go OS X native. Why? Because (unlike their other programs that went first) there IS no serious competitor for PhotoShop. So why would Adobe care?
I love PhotoShop, but Adobe needs some competition and they should stop treating Mac users like we should be grateful they are supporting us at all.
And there are those of us who would settle for a Universal version of Photoshop Elements — I’m not on a Mac Pro Quad or anything close, just a Core Duo iMac. And I’m getting tired of staring at the watch when I’m waiting for my adjusted pictures to render…
Morris,
yes I agree with the idea of buying Adobe, but not of discontinuing the software for MS PC’s
If that happened, MS would discontinue Office for Macs, and despite Boot Camp
(et al) that would damage Apple.
I could imagine that Apple and MS have a ‘gentlemen’s’ agreement not to get into a ‘sanctions war’. Because in such wars, both sides tend to lose.
Although my mw is ‘attack’
Once Adobe’s Acrobat Development Suite Mac version has feature parity with the Windows version, then I’ll quite down.
Did you know that there’s a development suite called ‘Adobe Lifecycle Extensions’ that is only developed for Windows, with a Mac version nowhere to be seen?
What it does is this:
You create a form in say, InDesign and export it as a PDF.
With Adobe Acrobat Professional (Mac version) you can add text input areas to the form, drop down multiple choice menus etc that another person can input their data into. You can also put clickable buttons on the form which can do almost any action, in this case, a button which, when pressed automatically attaches the form to an email, ready for emailing.
The idea being that you could post this form on a web site, and use it to capture data from anyone with a browser.
But, (and here’s the killer), your customer cannot add information to these forms with Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is free), you need Adobe Acrobat Professional.
Now, it’s a lot to ask every one of your customers to buy Adobe Acrobat Professional just to fill in a form, but this is where the Acrobat Lifecycle Extensions come in.
These extensions allow you to make any PDF form temporarily editable by the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, so your customer can fill in information (on that form only) and send it to you, just as if they had the Professional version of Acrobat.
But as I said, IT’S ONLY AVAILABLE FOR WINDOWS.
I now have to buy the Windows version of Acrobat, and run it through VPC just to add these features. Pathetic.
There’s no point in complaining though, because Adobe have no competition now.
CRASH! crash! (this is Fireworks – an Adobe product – on my MacBook Pro tonight) Crash! Crash! Crash! (etc.) Need I say Adobe deserves a wet-noodle whippin?
Please stop whining! At first i didn’t want to bother but i have to get this of my chest and in to some thick skulls around here. This once again proves that Mac users are ignorant and arrogant people with no personality other then their Mac. Look further d*mmit then some attention starving inciting Apple vs Adobe article.
Bashing down on Adobe for not delivering the tools you need, but why? Because the other Mac-users are doing it? Because you assume you know how Apple and Adobe disclosed this deal? Don’t be a sheep. It is you and only you who made a stupid decision when you bought a Intel Mac only because your holy leader Steve said so, NOT because you actually needed it.
If you’d paid attention you did know that Adobe made a clear statement about how and when they are going Universal. And you know that your ‘old’ G5 runs the tools where your waiting for ‘insanely’ fast, hell even the latest G4 will do the job smoother then Rosetta on a Quad. And you should know that transitions are always painfully and eventually pay off, and as a sidenote i believe that this one is the smoothest transition ever. You also might know that the hardware transition to Intel went a lot faster then first projected by Steve Jobs. Suppose it went like Steve <strike>lied to</strike> told us you could buy a Mac Pro at the end of this year and have all Adobe tools within half a year, hows that for a fast transition. But things went a lot faster for Apple on the hardwareside because Apple knows how to keep their shareholders happy and knows where the money is and its not with you guys, its the home-user not the pro-user.
So instead of bashing down on Adobe you should learn how to support a difficult transition like a fan and not make it even more difficult for the other guy who is working his *ss of to get the product out. People really have no clue these days other then demanding instead of paying attention.
So once again, it proves a lot of Mac users are ignorant, arrogant and your personality stops when you pull your magsafe plug out.
Cheers, Cheyenne
Proud user of a iMac G4, iMac Core Duo, Macbookpro, AMD Athlon X2 4200, Intel MacMini and not buying a Mac Pro yet because Steve told me too
you guys bitch about Photoshop taking forever. Ever heard of After Effects? When do you think AE will be UB native, huh? My guess is early 2008. Really makes me admire companies like Maxon (C4D) or Luxology (Modo) who have some massive complex code – but still come out with a perfectly working UB version within 2-3 weeks after the Intel switch was announced.
According to an Adobe blogger who wrote… what…about 8 months ago…that the reason they are taking so long with CS3 is because Photoshop has a truckload of code that was written for the old Motorola 68K chips!!
Apple provided an emulator when they went to the Power PC, so Adobe didn’t have to do much work to get Photoshop to PPC. Later on, they were again able to Carbonize Photoshop for PPC versions of Mac OS X without a lot of recoding.
Unfortunately, this time around, that hairball, cobwebby mess of undead code won’t just recompile for Intel-based Macs. Adobe basically has to recode from their bloatware from scratch, something they should have done, at the latest, for CS2.
Instead, it’s now supposedly Apple’s fault for not providing a cheap and easy way for Adobe to port the whole rat’s nest of 1980’s code to Mac OS X on Intel.
http://blogs.adobe.com/scottbyer/2006/03/macintosh_and_t.html
Adobe caused this problem with it’s own commitment to laziness and mediocrity. If they lose 1/2 their Photoshop customer base, it will be their own fault. Apple gave them fair warning what was coming down the pike, otherwise Adobe wouldn’t have been on stage with Steve Jobs, declaring their quick allegiance to Mac OS X Universal.
I own and run the top photography studio in our area. I can report that I DON’T KNOW A SINGLE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER that uses Aperture. Aperture just doen’t make sense. I have 7 macs, own aapl stock, love Apple Computer, but Aperture is a loser.
Apple should have bought Binuscan’s Photo Retouch Pro four years ago, (which runs in OSX) develop the crap out of it, and now Apple would have a Photoshop killer. Another company or program they should have bought is Phase One/Capture One.
It has been a while since Adobe did anything inspiring. They have been very boring and geeze my 1yr old PowerMac boots faster than Photoshop or Illustrator launches.
I think it is clear that the code for these apps are a mess.
Rabid Dog, That’s the dumbest thing i think i’ve ever read on this forum.
Don’t be surprised if you hear that CS3 will be Intel only. But would it really matter?
I must confess that I’m addicted to Photoshop/Illustrator and am apalled at the price of these apps. Apple buying Adobe means throwing a huge amount of money [“goodwill” value] down the drain. Products this expensive have a finite future, but so far, we’ve seen no competition. I will pay the piper for the next suite, but I would like nothing more than to pay a lot less for the same functionality. Alas, that would break the “you get what you pay for” equation, unless a lot of pirate users are encouraged to pay the cheaper price.
Buy Adobe? I can live with that. Compete with Adobe? If they can [find a way around all the Adobe patents], why not? Lose Photoshop/Illustrator type applications for the Mac? That…I can’t live with.
“the customer is always right”
Bullsh1t! Isn’t MDN the site that keeps telling everyone that the customer ISN’T always right? Steve knows best! Even when he’s giving customers everything BUT what they ask for.
Adobe did announce in advance that it would take them awhile to release a universal version of Photoshop, et.al. In other words, they basically admitted that they had been dragging their heels for quite a long time and would need another big chunk of time to catch up. Fine. Stupid, but fine. Apple’s star is seriously on the rise and Adobe would do well to buy a ticket before the train pulls out of the station.
“Don’t be surprised if you hear that CS3 will be Intel only. But would it really matter?”
With all due respect, what a ridiculous question! If one assumes that Adobe intends to make meaningful improvements to the next version of the Creative Suite, how can it “not really matter” if these improvements are only available to the relatively small percentage of Photoshop users who own Intel-powered Macs? Far from being “early adopters,” many creative professionals are very hesitant to upgrade their hardware until it’s absolutely necessary. They have their “work flow” and that is what’s most important to them. Nor are the CS apps used only by working professionals. Photoshop and Illustrator also have a huge following among creative home users, most of whom buy new computers only when the old one breaks. They’ll go elsewhere if Adobe leaves them out in the cold and, in the long run, that would definitely be Adobe’s loss.
Apple was stupid not to disallow Adobe to port over all the apps they developed exclusively for Macs to Windcrap!
This is how all the Windows asses can feel like having a Mac.
Without all the apps ported over by M$ and Adobe, the Windblowers would still be stuck in WordPerfect hell!
What a joke!
If Adobe is so set on keeping Mac users then why do they offer two versions of the Creative Suite? The Windows version contains LifeCycle Designer 7.0 – a powerful interactive forms creation tool – while the Mac version doesn’t? The 30-day trial of the Windows version of CS 2 contains Acrobat; the Mac version doesn’t. Seems that Adobe will continue to favor the Windows slugs.
Adobe is taking their time on purpose.
They purposely do things to hurt that Mac, but they make it so it’s not blatantly obvious. Essentially they’re angry with Apple for dipping into “their” space and this is how they punish them. Not only does it hurt Apple’s bottom line but it keeps Apple from releasing products that directly compete with Adobe. Apple releases Final Cut Pro and Adobe kills Premier.
You can try to use the argument that Microsoft is a bigger threat to Adobe by tackling some products at the heart of Adobe. However, think about this, Microsoft hasn’t turned out too many stellar media applications of late and therefore don’t represent a meaningful threat. Apple on the other hand is known for turning out killer software and represents a substantial threat, especially since so many media professionals use Macintoshes.
So Adobe is being smart and tactful. I don’t like it more than anyone else, but this is how it is.