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According to Wired, Adobe may be in the process of taking on Microsoft in the Office Suite arena. Microsoft, the maker of Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and Powerpoint, depends on the Office Suite as its main source of revenue given their product’s extensive rooting into the world’s business computers.
Now with Vista taking serious blows in terms of stability and usability, Microsoft’s flagship product is under attack from all sides. OpenOffice.org and Google Pack, a collection of free applications recommended for users, now includes a web-based version of StarOffice, developed by Sun Microsystems already fired warning shots across Microsoft’s bow, but now there is potentially a new runner in the mix…Adobe.
Most people don’t realize it, but Adobe is installed on more computers in the world than Microsoft, thanks to the near ubiquitous use of PDF’s and the Adobe Reader software installed on nearly every machine in the world. This places Adobe in a very enviable position with their product used in nearly every business office world-wide. The only other company able to claim this is Microsoft.
Now with Adobe’s AIR, any program can quickly and easily convert their web-based application to a desktop program, capable of running on a variety of platforms. AIR allows developers to make sleek, integrated, smooth applications with a development period infinitesimally smaller when compared to other competitors. As the Adobe Group Manager for platform evangelism says, “”Though we have not yet announced any intentions to move into the office-productivity software market…considering we have built this platform that makes it easy to build rich applications that run on both the desktop and the browser, I certainly wouldn’t rule anything like that out.”
Adobe is now in a prime spot to make an Office Suite killer quickly, couple that with the brand-name recognition of Adobe and their install base of software through Acrobat Reader and you have yourself the next Microsoft. The question is whether Adobe aspires to be the next Borg. Soon every law office could be running Adobe Office…Resistance is Futile.