Adobe 2007 Annual Report Download - page 5

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With the increasing use of the Web as a means for marketing and advertising, we believe a key driver of our Creative
Solutions business will also be the growing amount of Web site and mobile device content created by our customers to
deliver impactful and compelling Web-based experiences for their constituents.
Another driver of our Creative Solutions business is the growth in the use of digital devices such as digital cameras,
digital video cameras, multimedia-enabled computers, DVD players, scanners, Web-capable image and video-enabled
handheld devices, cellular phones, gaming consoles and other non-PC Internet-connected devices. In addition, Internet
broadband adoption makes the Web a viable platform for the delivery of rich media, especially digital video. In turn, the
growth in the use of high definition (“HD”) televisions and video is driving the need for HD-enhanced video tools to produce
HD content for movies, and cable and commercial television, as well as the need to deliver or repurpose this content to be
viewed on the Web.
As the use of digital photography and digital videography grows, we believe creative professionals and professional
photographers throughout the world will continue to require software solutions to edit, enhance and manage their digital
photographs and digital videos. Increasingly, we expect these users to desire software solutions which leverage the Web as a
platform to deliver the capabilities of some or all of the features they desire in desktop software. In addition, we believe
creative professionals and Web developers are increasing their use of digital video streams over the Web to create more
compelling Web sites that leverage the adoption of broadband. We believe professional videographers are upgrading their
systems to support HD video content creation, enhancement and delivery. We also believe hobbyists will use, with more
frequency, digital imaging and digital video software and online hosted software services as they purchase more affordable
digital cameras and digital video cameras.
Creative Solutions Business Summary
In fiscal 2007, we maintained our focus on driving adoption of our creative products, particularly our Adobe Creative
Suite family of products. During the year, we launched the largest product release in our history with the release of Adobe
Creative Suite version 3 (“CS3”). CS3 incorporates Adobe technologies used by creative professionals into six Creative
Suite editions, providing offerings for the various creative disciplines our customers desire.
The CS3 family of products includes enhanced features which allow users to work more efficiently, improve product
integration among the various technologies within the Creative Suite products and integrate workflow and collaboration
capabilities. The family of products also includes support for the newest operating systems and hardware platforms, including
Microsoft’ s Vista operating system and Apple’ s new Macintosh hardware which utilize Intel-based processors.
During fiscal 2007, in addition to licensing our technologies as part of the six Creative Suite offerings, we continued to
focus on adoption of our stand-alone products by delivering new versions of 13 individual creative products. In the second
and third quarters of fiscal 2007, we delivered new versions of products such as Adobe After Effects, Adobe Contribute,
Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Encore, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Flash, Adobe InCopy, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator,
Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro. We also released a new audio tool called Adobe Soundbooth.
With the initial launch of CS3 in our second quarter of fiscal 2007, we achieved record Creative Solutions revenue in
successive quarters beginning with the launch quarter and continuing through the end of the fiscal year. This was achieved
through broad adoption of our new offerings, driven by positive industry reviews and strong demand for the capabilities of
the newly launched products.
As part of the CS3 launch, we maintained our focus during the year on meeting the digital imaging and video software
needs of professional photographers, professional videographers, business users and hobbyists. Adobe Photoshop is an
essential tool in these customers’ workflows, and they rely on Adobe’ s digital imaging and video editing solutions to create
and enhance many of the pictures and video we see everyday in print, on television, in movies and on the Web. The release
of Adobe Photoshop CS3 in the second quarter of fiscal 2007 included many new desirable features and received positive
industry reviews. At the same time, we also delivered a new, advanced version called Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Edition which added measurement and analysis tools, three-dimensional (“3D”) visualization and texture editing and video
feature capabilities to the product family.
Earlier in the year, we added another product to the Photoshop family called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Photoshop
Lightroom version 1.0 was released in the first quarter of fiscal 2007, and quickly became the leading digital imaging