Digital Home Thoughts: CNET: "Adobe, Apple Drifting Apart"

CNET is running a story discussing the relationship between Adobe and Apple, and how that partnership may be waning.

"Right now, it's in a colder period. Signs of frost have been accumulating for the past couple of years, with Adobe dropping Macintosh support for several software products and introducing others as Microsoft Windows-only applications. At the same time, Apple has quietly pushed Adobe out of a few markets by selling its own applications or bundling them into its OS X operating system.

Windows has finally become adequate as a publishing platform," he said, meaning graphics professionals can switch to a cheaper platform than the Mac."

We recently touched on this topic with Adobe's discontinuation of FrameMaker for Mac. Adobe seems to be focusing its resources on Windows.

I work as a web designer, and I can tell you from my experience that Apple's share of the creative professional field is definitely declining. Seven years ago every digital artist I encountered was on a Mac. Whether it was a graphics designer, web designer, illustrator, Flash animator, etc., they all used Macs. Today the landscape looks very different. I would say more than 90% of web designers and firms that I encounter are on Windows. Macs still have a very sizable lead in the graphics field, but PCs are gaining in popularity. The problem isn't platform migration as much as it is a matter of "new" content creators choosing PC. So perhaps this is, in part, why Adobe is shifting focus?