I was reading through some of the posts about Ray Ozzie’s speech in which he laid out Microsoft’s strategy and got to thinking about the different approach from Adobe and Microsoft because this quote from Stowe Boyd caught my eye:
The likelihood is that Microsoft will be/is being blindsided by a wave of tiny startups that won’t be building anything on the Microsoft cloud. Microsoft may think they will dominate the cloud based on the attractiveness of their own software sitting there.
I’m not really sure I agree with Stowe because I think Microsoft is smarter than he gives them credit for being. But I agree with him that startups are more important now and can have a bigger impact. And I think that’s one of the key parts of the Adobe platform: we want to enable you to create great experiences.
Adobe is uniquely positioned. Flash has a giant install base from the consumer side to the enterprise side; it’s everywhere. It has become the de facto standard for rich media on the web and designers have been using it for so long that they can cook up everything from engaging websites to games. On the developer side we continue to make strides with tools like Flex Builder and initiatives like Adobe AIR. But here’s the thing that I think is important: Adobe makes money when other people are innovating.
We’re a tools company, so in order for us to make more money, we need to sell more copies of software that helps people create things. We work very hard to make sure our platform is both everywhere you want to be and up to the standards you expect. But at the end of the day, we have a very symbiotic relationship with the people building on our platform because we succeed when they do. I think the fact that our revenue is tied so closely to tools means that we have an advantage in the Web 2.0 world where everyone is a content creator. I don’t mean that as marketing gobbly-de-gook, I just think it’s cool that we can tie our business directly to the people building the web.
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