Adobe 2006 Annual Report Download - page 26

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26
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 Macromedia Flash Lite include Java, Brew, SVG, WAP and Microsoft Windows Mobile, as well as
solutions from the open source movement and vendors supplying clone versions of these products and
technologies.
We believe our Macromedia Flash Lite solution competes favorably against these technologies and solutions
due to the ubiquitous 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.
Enterprise and Developer Solutions
The markets we address with our Macromedia ColdFusion, Adobe LiveCycle and Adobe Flex products are
influenced by evolving industry standards, rapid software and hardware technology developments, and new
product introductions from competitors such as Microsoft and IBM.
Microsoft has already brought to market new products and technologies to address many of the emerging
market needs we focus on with our Adobe LiveCycle family of products. In the Professional version of Microsoft
Office 2003, it introduced a new information gathering program called InfoPath 2003. They also introduced
Windows Rights Management Services in their Windows Server 2003 product, which is designed to allow
corporate networks to manage and enforce restrictions built into documents.
As discussed previously, Microsoft has recently started shipping its next generation operating system, called
Windows Vista. Windows Vista includes a new document format, called XPS, which competes with Adobe PDF.
Windows Vista also contains a proprietary digital rights management technology which competes with Adobe
LiveCycle Policy Server. In addition, Microsoft’s new version of Office includes an updated version of its
SharePoint product which competes with certain aspects of our Adobe LiveCycle products. Microsoft has also
recently delivered technology called Windows Presentation Foundation as part of the Windows Vista release in
late 2006. Windows Presentation Foundation offers an alternative to building RIA applications within the
Microsoft .NET framework.
In the electronic forms solution market, in addition to competition from Microsoft Infopath based solutions,
we face competition from IBM through their acquisition of an eForms solution company called PureEdge and
their acquisition of FileNET’s electronic form solutions. Similarly, we face competition for document process
management solutions from workflow solution vendors such as MetaStorm, Nuance and Ultimus.
We believe that our Adobe LiveCycle server product family competes favorably against these companies and
formats in terms of the combined benefits of superior functionality, cross-platform visual page fidelity/reliability,
multi-platform 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 ubiquitous universal multi-platform solution that is more
compelling than our competitors’ offerings.
As we broaden the scope of products and solutions offered with our Enterprise and Developer Solutions
products, we face increased competition from entrenched office applications, emerging products/technologies and
potentially, enterprise collaboration system providers. Additionally, current office applications and content
creation/management tools that use HTML, Microsoft Word, Tagged Information File Format (“TIFF”) and