ZDNet: ‘Still waiting’ for Adobe’s OS X plans

Ziff Davis Internet Managing Editor Matthew Rothenberg says that he’s still waiting for a tangible demonstration of Adobe Systems Inc.’s plans for Mac OS X. His comments come in a recently posted Interactive Week editorial entitled Does Mac OS X Rest On Adobe?

Rothenberg compares his experience now to one he had four years ago when Apple, under the leadership of CEO Gil Amelio, first revealed its plans for Rhapsody, its then next-generation operating system. Adobe was reluctant to discuss specific details of how it planned to support the new OS strategy then, and Rothenberg said things haven’t changed much in the intervening years.

Sure, said Rothenberg, Adobe has shipped an OS X version of Acrobat Reader, and Adobe makes no secret of its intentions to support the new platform. Rothenberg asserts that the market still needs direct answers from Adobe to hard questions about how the company plans to leverage Mac OS X moving forward, however.

“Which brings me back to the list of questions Adobe’s marketing veep made me put away back in 1997: What advantages will Mac OS X provide to Adobe’s graphics applications? What hurdles will Adobe have to overcome to move its core technologies over to the new OS? And will Carbonized Adobe applications offer new reasons for graphics vets to stand by their Macs?

“The answers still aren’t forthcoming,” said Rothenberg.

Rothenberg suggests that Adobe runs the risk of watching its competitors leapfrog ahead with firm Mac OS X plans while the company stays mum about its specific plans.

“Macromedia this month rolled out a Carbonized version of FreeHand, Adobe Illustrator’s perennial competitor for vector graphics, and Corel Corp. is reportedly about to go public with a Mac OS X beta of the Bryce 3D package it picked up from MetaCreations Corp.,” said Rothenberg.

One way or the other, Adobe’s plans are unquestionably crucial to the platform, said Rothenberg. “Whatever answers Adobe provides, they’ll be crucial to the general usefulness of Mac OS X to its hard core of graphics pros and definitive when it comes to determining Adobe’s place in the brave new world of Mac computing.”