Adobe 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

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4
allow users of our products and technologies to ensure reliable, secure and rich application experiences across devices,
browsers and operating systems.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OVERVIEW
In fiscal 2008, we categorized our products and services into the following businesses: Creative Solutions, Business
Productivity Solutions, Mobile and Device Solutions and Other. We further broke our Business Productivity Solutions
business into two reported segments: Knowledge Worker and Enterprise. We also broke our Other business into two
reported segments: i) Platform and ii) Print and Publishing.
Effective in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, we modified our segment reporting. Our Creative Solutions segment and our
Business Productivity Solutions business that is reported in two segments (Knowledge Worker and Enterprise), continue to
be reported as they were in fiscal 2008. Our Mobile and Device Solutions business, which was moved into our Platform
business unit, will be reported as part of the Platform segment.
Accordingly, our five fiscal 2009 business segments are as follows: Creative Solutions, Knowledge Worker, Enterprise,
Platform, and Print and Publishing. This overview, organized by these segments, combines an explanation of our various
market opportunities with a summary of our fiscal 2008 results and a discussion of our strategies to address our market
opportunities in fiscal 2009 and beyond.
Creative Solutions Segment
Creative Solutions Market Opportunity
Our Creative Solutions segment focuses primarily on the needs of the creative professional customer. Creative
professionals include graphic designers, production artists, Web designers and developers, user interface designers, writers,
videographers, photographers and prepress professionals. They use and rely on Adobe’ s solutions for professional
publishing, Web design and development, professional photography, video production, animation and motion graphic
production and printing visually rich information.
Our software tools are used by creative professionals to create much of the printed and on-line information people see
and read every day, including newspapers, magazines, Web sites, catalogs, advertisements, brochures, product
documentation, books, memos, reports and banners. Our tools are also used to create and enhance visually rich content,
including video, animation and mobile content, that is created by multimedia, film, television, audio and video producers who
work in advertising, Web design, music, entertainment, corporate and marketing communications, product design, user
interface design, sales training, printing, architecture and fine arts. Knowledge workers, hobbyists and high end consumers
are also attracted to our creative products to create and deliver content that is of creative professional quality.
Our offerings in the Creative Solutions market extend to real-time rich media solutions which give business users the
control to upload, manage, enhance and publish dynamic rich content with minimal IT support. Our offerings also extend to
the delivery of rich media through streaming media and a flexible development environment for creating and delivering
innovative, interactive media applications. Our media products and services enable broadcasters, events organizers and
marketers to reach the broadest possible audience via our rich Flash Platform.
As technology continues to improve, the market dynamics for these creative professionals continue to evolve. Due to the
constantly changing ways in which people choose to receive information, creative professionals look to their software tools
as a means to make their information impactful and to repurpose content across a variety of media and applications. They
desire greater efficiency from the software they use to streamline their publishing and content creation workflows and to
effectively manage their assets. They also look for new and innovative ways to deliver their content and information to hand-
held devices such as mobile handsets and consumer electronic devices.
Creative professional customers license upgrades and new units of our Creative Solutions products due to the high
degree of innovative new features and significant productivity gained through their use. They also frequently purchase license
upgrades and new units of these products when they buy new computers, or migrate to new or updated operating systems.