Adobe 2007 Annual Report Download - page 26

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26
capability, file compression, printing and security of documents expressed using Adobe PDF. We also believe that Adobe
PDF and its integration with XML, combined with the broad distribution of Adobe Reader on all leading hardware platforms,
provide a universal multi-platform solution that is more compelling than our competitors’ offerings.
Our Adobe Flex server product provides a solution for developers and IT departments wanting to deploy enterprise
class, RIAs and leverages Adobe Flash Player technology. Beyond the competitive Microsoft threats previously discussed,
vendors such as Tibco, JackBe, Backbase and NexaWeb offer competitive solutions in the RIA market that we target with
Flex. In addition, new open source technologies including AJAX techniques provide alternative methods for creating RIAs.
Numerous open source groups, as well as a number of commercial software vendors are working to build tools and
frameworks that make AJAX competitive with Flex.
Mobile and Device Solutions
The markets we address with our Mobile and Device solutions are influenced by evolving industry standards, rapid
software and hardware technology developments and frequent new product and technology introductions by companies or
open-source initiatives targeting similar opportunities. Technologies and products which could compete with Adobe Flash
Lite include Java, Brew, Scalable Vector Graphics, Wireless Application Protocol and Microsoft Windows Mobile, as well as
solutions from the open source movement, vendors supplying clone versions of these products and technologies and vendors
which choose to exclude the use of our solutions and technologies on their devices.
We believe our Adobe Flash Lite solution competes favorably against these technologies and solutions due to the
distribution of Adobe Flash Player technology on a broad set of platforms, including PCs, cellular phones and consumer
electronic devices. We also believe our robust programming model and developer tools used to create Flash content, and the
large Flash developer community and ecosystem which utilize our tools, are key assets in our ability to effectively compete in
this market. Further, the rich expressiveness of Flash which provides the capability to deliver audio, video, motion graphics,
vector graphics and visual effects, and results in rich user experiences and interfaces on mobile devices, is a key
differentiation when compared to the capabilities of alternate solutions.
In the past year, the mobile industry experienced many announcements and introductions of new mobile devices and
platforms – and we expect innovation and new announcements such as those seen in 2007 to continue in 2008. We view
these ongoing developments, including the recently announced Google Android project consisting of a group of more than 30
technology and mobile companies that are working to develop an open and free mobile platform, as new opportunities to
deploy our technologies and solutions. Just as we maintain a philosophy of cross-platform support in the personal computer
desktop world for operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, Unix and Linux, we expect to continue to
enhance our support for a wide variety of mobile and consumer electronic platforms, and we intend to make our products and
services available on viable, new entrant platforms as well.
Other
Our Other segment consists of our Platform and our Print Publishing businesses. Our Platform business includes
responsibility for our Adobe AIR strategy, as well as our Adobe ColdFusion product family and our Flex Builder developer
tool. These products face competition from major vendors including Microsoft, IBM, BEA and Sun. In addition, Adobe AIR
and Adobe Flash Player face competition from Microsoft Silverlight. Our ColdFusion products compete with several
technologies available today at no cost including the PHP and PERL programming environments that are available for the
Apache Web server.
Our Print Publishing product line targets many markets. In technical authoring and publishing, our Adobe FrameMaker
product faces competition from large-scale electronic publishing systems, XML-based publishing companies such as PTC, as
well as lower-end desktop publishing products such as Microsoft Word. Competition is based on the quality and features of
products, the level of customization and integration with other publishing system components, the number of hardware
platforms supported, service and price. We believe we can successfully compete based upon the quality and features of the
Adobe FrameMaker product and our extensive application programming interface.
In desktop publishing, our Adobe PageMaker product faces competition from other software products, including
Microsoft Publisher. Competition is based on the quality and features of products, ease-of-use, printer service support and