Adobe: We are here to compete...

Adobe Blog by Steve Forde

Thought I would post a couple thoughts since I have been receiving a TON of email asking for comment on the FCPX release etc.

First – let me say this:

Before coming to Adobe my preferred tool for editing was FCP. Premiere CS4 was installed as part of master collection. Back then every time I had to use it, I didn’t like it – It wasn’t better than FCP and it did things differently – so I ignored it.

Then jump ahead in time and I am interviewing for the job as AE product manager, and I was honest in my interviews of what I thought about Premiere when asked about it. Where they had me though? – I hadn’t even tried the latest version.

So I tried Premiere CS 5.

Sure it ‘felt’ a little different. There are small things that annoy me such as project settings at the beginning. But then it just worked. OMG. It REALLY worked…fast.

In CS5 Adobe had done a complete rewrite of the guts in Premiere to 64 bit on both MAC and PC, and listened to users about how the application should change – dozens of changes throughout the application to make it ‘just work’.

My point is: If Adobe focus was so clear that it was willing to put that much of an investment into re-architecting an application that was being dismissed or ignored by many – that showed to me that Adobe was VERY serious about winning in the professional market, seat by seat. Frankly, that was what helped me make up my mind to join the company. When I joined I found out how strong the acceptance of Premiere had been in the time I was ignoring it.

To all those asking me for comment on the launch of FCPX, I have none. What right do I have to publicly comment on the hard work any vendor does in creating software and bringing it to market? read more...