Adobe to Join The New World Wide Web Order
We are definitely beginning to see signs of what a possible new world wide web order will look like. This new WWW order is categorized by the increase in traditional desktop applications being offered in the Internet using Web 2.0 technologies. A WWW beyond content. With the release of Google Apps, we have seen the gradual movement of office productivity (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation) into the web.
Here comes another big move from a big player in the desktop application space … Adobe. Here is an article announcing the release of an online version of their extremely popular graphics editing tool: Photoshop.
One of the risks of trying to find a niche to build a startup is that the big guys can land on your face at any time. That’s why all of these startups are going to be in serious trouble when Adobe releases a free, ad supported online version of Photoshop in six months.
This announcement comes at a time when developers are lavishing attention on Adobe’s Flex platform, particularly in the video editing and sharing space. I think it’s reasonable for startups to question if Adobe will plan on competing with them in areas beyond photo editing. If that’s the case, these startups may not want to spend their time and venture dollars testing out various products, only to have Adobe jump in the middle after all the dirty work is done.
As Mike mentions, conflict is definitely inevitable. But, this definitely shows a movement towards the new WWW order. Is this a sign of the eventual demise of desktop application software? Only time will tell.
