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Cringely Posits Adobe's Purchase by Apple
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Apr 28, 2006 02:07 PM
from the now-what-is-he-talking-about dept.
from the now-what-is-he-talking-about dept.
An anonymous reader writes to mention another Robert Cringely piece discussing Apple's future. In his latest article, he lays out some goals for Apple on its quest to desktop dominance. An important link in this chain is Apple's purchase of Adobe Systems. From the article: "Adobe has already made one feint away from Mac development that required personal pressure from Steve Jobs on John Warnock to reverse. If Apple kinda-sorta embraces Windows enough for Adobe to question whether continued development for the native OS X platform is still warranted, well, then Apple WILL just become another Dell, which isn't what Steve Jobs wants. Steve wants Windows applications to run like crazy on his hybrid platform but to look like crap. In his heart of hearts, he'd still like to beat Microsoft on the merits, not just by leveraging some clever loophole. So he needs the top ISVs who are currently writing for OS X to continue writing for OS X, and that especially means Adobe."
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Mod article '-1, Troll' (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Mod article '-1, Troll' (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, if you're a journalist, paid to analyze technology trends and make wild shot-in-the-dark predictions of what might possibly happen one day, or you're writing an article of what business moves might benefit one group or another, that's perfectly fine. Cringly thinks Apple should buy Adobe, and I'm sure lots of people could write articles on why they think Apple shouldn't.
Let's just not let this get out of hand and become an actual rumor.
Parent
Oh please! (Score:5, Insightful)
Could be.
Yeah, and it could be that the product never lived up to expectations and saw little market adoption so Apple decided it was time to cut their losses and focus their resources on something else.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Or it could be a fabrication (Score:5, Insightful)
Since Aperture is still being sold in the Apple store and the pages for the product are all still up, I know which theory I'd buy into!
If you must believe something a little more juicy, how about an attempt by Think Secret (or someone behind it) to discredit Apple?
Parent
It's NOT a rumor (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a prediction, not a rumor, and his record with predictions is not bad.
Parent
The Cringe of Embracing Windows (Score:5, Funny)
I have seen it and, well at least it does run like crazy... [microsoft.com]
So the logic here is (Score:5, Funny)
What do call a CEO who makes the decision to chop $400 million off his company's profits?
Unemployed.
Revenue vs. Profit (Score:5, Insightful)
Although I agree with your sentiment, it's worth pointing out that $400M in revenue -- which would be sales figures -- does not translate into $400M in profit.
Unless of course you're engaging in a little Enron-style math, that is. Software companies may have high margins, but they're not 100%.
Parent
Re:So the logic here is (Score:5, Funny)
Carly Fiorina [wikipedia.org]
Well... And unemployed.
Parent
Hope not (Score:5, Insightful)
- Apple needs some healthy competition in this domain
- Even though I am a Mac user, having a competitor in the PC domain also helps Apple keep on their toes
- Adobe bought Macromedia, so in this field Apple would near a potential monopoly.
Gates Obliges Jobs (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it's up to Jobs to make sure of the former, but MS has already done what it can to accomplish that latter.
Dvorak/Cringely + Apple/Google (Score:5, Insightful)
Cringely: The thinking man's Dvorak (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cringely: The thinking man's Dvorak NO COST (Score:5, Insightful)
If Adobe stock were converted to new Apple shares that properly reflect the increased value of Apple + Adobe, it would cost them the amount of printing the new certificates and mailing them, which is essentially nothing. That assumes a friendly takeover/merger.
Parent
Wow. (Score:5, Interesting)
Steve wants Windows applications to run like crazy on his hybrid platform but to look like crap. In his heart of hearts, he'd still like to beat Microsoft on the merits, not just by leveraging some clever loophole.
OS X running Windows apps in ugly gray, thats what he is onto. Its coming.
__
Elephant Essays [elephantessays.com] - Cover Letters, Research Papers, Editing
Re:Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, he's still missing the point.
No, "in his heart of hearts", he doesn't really care about Microsoft, because Apple compete against Dell and all the other hardware vendors. OS X is a differentiator in the hardware market, not a core product that they are competing against Microsoft with. Intel & Bootcamp fits nicely into that strategy, and I suspect he wouldn't care if 90% of the people who bought Macs ran Windows, because that 90% will have chosen Apple over Dell.
Parent
Re:Wow. (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that Vista isn't due until '07, and most orgs are still running apps from the Win2k days, being able to run Win2k/XP apps w/in a more secure OS would certainly be an attractive offering.
Parent
Hey Cringely (Score:5, Funny)
-Curious on Slashdot
"There's no demand for a Windows version..." (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple co-founded Adobe and owned part of Adobe.
This would be the perfect deal. And then the sweet "sorry, we're cancelling Photoshop for Windows since there is no demand for a PC version".
They have done that before too.
We live in interesting times. And I love it.
Crap (Score:5, Insightful)
The merged company name will be . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Why Do What MS Has Done? (Score:5, Insightful)
John C. Dvorak acquired by Robert X. Cringley (Score:5, Funny)
Morons. Why does this shit get posted here every week, clogging up my screen real estate. I want to read about motherboards.
From Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen own mouth... (Score:5, Informative)
I dunno... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I don't see why people here are pooh-poohing the idea of Apple buying Adobe so much. I mean, forgetting about what you want, and focusing on what is good for Apple.
There are two things that will really harm (if not kill) Apple: (1) no Office; (2) no Photoshop.
However, of the two, I say #2 is even more important for Apple...Apple's core market is still graphics, despite all the mainstream press they've been getting. Without Photoshop there effectively is no OS X.
Secondly, Apple bought Final Cut Pro from Macromedia, they acquired DVD Studio Pro from (who was it? some company that started with 'A'), they bought Logic. Are any of these pieces of software Apple's 'core' business? No, they aren't. I remember I was more than a little surprised to see Apple even acquire these pieces of software. Not only have they acquired them, they have redeveloped them into really nice apps. So clearly, part of their strategy is to provide extremely nice pro apps for their own OS.
One segment of pro apps they have avoided -- I am sure partially to not piss off Adobe -- is graphics. They lack a pro 3D app, and they lack a pro 2D app (though by working CoreImage into the OS, they have provided tools that programmers can use to recreate 75% of what Photoshop does easily). Further, Adobe controls the PDF format (which Apple uses fir display in their OS).
I dunno...I think Adobe would be a pretty much perfect fit for Apple. Other than Premiere (which sucks anyway), very little of their work seems to overlap, and then Apple would have a complete suite of pro apps guaranteed to run on OS X (and if they really wanted to be shitty, they could discontinue the Windows versions, and leave Microsoft high and dry).
I mean, if this became too much of a distraction for Apple, they could spin off a separate software company (a la FileMaker), but other than potential distractions, I fail to see how acquiring Adobe would be all that bad for Apple, and I can certainly see a lot of potential upside in the thought.