Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe Systems, recently said We take the Microsoft threat seriously.Forbes conducted interviews with Bruce Chizen of Adobe and Stephen Elop of Macromedia. They discussed a variety of topics including customer concerns, threats from Microsoft (read, Metro, Sparkle, Acrylic), outsourcing, future of Freehand and new market opportunities after the merger is complete.
On concerns about an industry monopoly:
Chizen: Combining complementary solutions doesn't create a monopoly; it makes us a more effective competitor against Microsoft
On threats from Microsoft Sparkle (Flash rival) and Microsoft Metro (PDF rival)
Chizen: Metro is said to have some similarities to earlier versions of Adobe's PDF..But PDF has gained wide acceptance as the standard for document sharing because it's an open standard [unlike Metro]
On rumours that Freehand will be phased out
Elop: Based on the feedback from the last version of Studio, we decided to make a change. FreeHand was replaced by the addition of Contribute and FlashPaper to better fulfill the typical design-develop-maintain workflow needs of our customers.
On outsourcing to India:
Elop: Both Macromedia and Adobe have a strong commitment to the development of products leveraging expertise from around the world. To the extent that this approach facilitates the development of great solutions in a competitive environment, it will continue to be part of our strategy.
Read full Forbes interview Adobe, Macromedia CEOs Speak Out
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