Like Nibaq just posted, Adobe just acquired Macromedia. What does this mean to us? Well first lets see what major software both companies have.
Adobe
Acrobat, Photoshop, Elements, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Premier, After Effects
Macromedia
Flash, Dreamweaver, FreeHand, Director, Fireworks
The biggest and most controversial problem is Illustrator and Freehand. Both softwares are currently being used although in the past few years FreeHand has lost a considerable share of the market, they still have a cult following. But, between Illustrator and Freehand, there is no question, Freehand will die. Its been dying slowly anyway but I am sure the fans will cry murder. Fireworks which conflicts with Photoshop and Elements will also die out, Photoshop has a much larger market share and a much stronger brand. GoLive and Dreamweaver, GoLive is out for sure. Adobe has been trying to play catchup with Dreamweaver for a very long time and this way they can just trash GoLive and pickup the much more popular Dreamweaver. Director will be a very nice addition to the Adobe Suite and I hope they manage to integrate it nicely with the other Adobe software, which I am sure they will. Finally owning both Flash and Acrobat I think is a very strong package, PDF is used a lot in the print world while Flash is used alot in the digital one. Owning both means that they will have a very strong position in both medias. All they need now is to buyout Quark and we will have another Microsoft-like company to deal with.
3 replies on “Adobe & Macromedia”
don’t forget that Adobe already acquired a company that owned Freehand – Aldus. Part of the deal with the butchering of the company was that they would sell Freehand. Macromedia just happens to be owning it at the moment, and you can bet that Adobe will sell it again – and then later buy that company. 😉
What if Apple buys the good old Freehand? They would create a Killing Machine competition for the Design&Print Market, just like they did with the film industry and Final Cut, Soundtrack, Freehand has a potential that Adobe won’t see because their Blindness.
Freehand= Illustrator + InDesign + Multiages