Adobe Systems announced a new version of Premiere, its high-end video-editing platform, but with one important change that bodes ill for Apple – the new Premiere will be Windows-only, making this the first version of the product that doesn’t support Apple’s Mac OS. Here’s an article about Adobe’s announcement.
Apple and Adobe have a long relationship, and Adobe is arguably the reason the Mac survived past the mid-80s. Adobe products are the primary force behind the longstanding myth that Macs are superior platforms for graphics and video work.
So Adobe’s defection is a staggering blow to Apple. Earlier this year, Adobe posted a public Web page touting the performance benefits of editing video on Windows PCs, and the company recently released PhotoShop Album as a Windows-only product when Apple shut down the market for consumer-oriented Mac-based digital-photo-management software by including iPhoto for free with new Mac systems.
Adobe’s decision mirrors that of many third-party developers, most of which have far less emotional reasons to continue supporting Apple: Supporting the dwindling Macintosh market doesn’t make financial sense, especially when Apple is busy trying to get its own hands on the Mac’s few remaining lucrative software areas.
Apple is losing market share quarter by quarter; its share currently hovers at just over 2 percent. Previous stalwarts such as the educational market are abandoning the Mac in droves, seeking to standardize on less-expensive Windows PC systems. And now a major player in the digital-video market has jumped ship as well. The future is not bright.
