Adobe 2010 Annual Report Download - page 33

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multi-screen, multi-channel applications; standards-based architecture; scalability and performance; and leadership in
industry standards efforts.
Omniture
In our Omniture segment, we compete primarily with Web analytics and business optimization vendors whose software
is provided on demand to customers, generally through a Web browser. We also compete to a limited extent with vendors
whose software is installed by customers directly on their servers. In addition, we compete at times with our customers’ or
potential customers’ internally developed applications.
Our current principal competitors include companies that offer Web analytics and optimization services on-demand such
as ComScore (through their recent acquisition of Nedstat), Google, IBM (through their recent acquisitions of Coremetrics and
Unica), Microsoft, WebTrends and Yahoo!. We also compete with software vendors, such as Infor (which owns Epiphany),
Nielsen/NetRatings (which is a part of the Nielsen Online Unit of the Nielsen Company) and SAS Institute. In addition, we
also compete with online marketing service providers, such as Microsoft Advertising (formerly aQuantive when acquired by
Microsoft), DoubleClick (owned by Google) and 24/7 Real Media (acquired by WPP).
Our Test&Target products compete with multivariate testing providers, such as Optimost (owned by Autonomy),
Memetrics (owned by Accenture), Kefta (owned by Acxiom Digital) and [x + 1]. Our SiteSearch products compete with
intra-site search vendors, such as Autonomy, Endeca Technologies, FAST Search and Transfer ASA (owned by Microsoft)
and Google. Our Merchandising product competes with merchandising solutions providers such as Endeca (owned by
ThanxMedia), Celebros, SLI Systems, Nextopia Software and Fredhopper. Our InSight products compete with channel
analytics providers, such as Truviso, Clickfox, Qliktech and AsterData. Our Recommendations product competes with
product recommendations providers, such as Aggregate Knowledge, Baynote, Certona, Rich Relevance and Amadesa. Our
SearchCenter products compete with point solutions providers, such as Marin Software and Kenshoo, tier 2 point solution
providers such as SearchIgnite and Clickable, as well as some services oriented search companies such as Efficient Frontier.
Finally, our Survey product competes with survey providers such as OpinionLab, iPerceptions and Foresee Results.
Many of the companies that offer Web analytics software offer other products or services and as a result could also
bundle their products or services, which may result in these companies effectively selling their products or services at or
below market prices. In addition, large software, Internet and database management companies have entered the market and
enhanced their Web analytics capabilities, either by developing competing services or by acquiring existing competitors or
strategic partners of ours. For example, Google offers a Web analytics service free of charge, and acquired DoubleClick, one
of our strategic partners, in 2008. Also, Microsoft offers a Web analytics service free of charge, and offers Microsoft
Advertising, which is based on their 2007 acquisition of aQuantive. Yahoo! also offers a Web analytics service based on its
acquisition of IndexTools, and IBM recently acquired Coremetrics and Unica to extend their e-retailing offering in an
initiative they call Project Northstar. These competitors, given their significant resources and preexisting relationships with
our current and potential customers, could compete effectively against us.
We believe competitive factors in our markets include the proven performance, security, scalability, flexibility and
reliability of services; the strategic relationships and integration with third-party applications; the intuitiveness and visual
appeal of services’ user interfaces; the low total cost of ownership and demonstrable cost-effective benefits to customers; the
ability of services to provide N-dimensional segmentation of information; pricing; the flexibility and adaptability of services
to match changing business demands; enterprise-level customer service and training; perceived market leadership; the
usability of services, including services being easy to learn and remember, efficient and visually compelling; the real-time
availability of data and reporting; independence from portals and search engines; the ability to deploy the services globally
and to provide multi-currency, multi-language and multi-character support and to have a local presence in international
markets; and success in educating customers in how to utilize services effectively.
Print and Publishing
Our Print and 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
hard-ware 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