...interact with information on non-PC devices than PC devices. It is going to be less on a PC and more on mobile devices. Two to four years from now it will be through an HDTV that has a satellite box or a video game or a cable box or maybe just natively has computing capability.
What does that mean for Adobe?
It means that even though most of our customers will want to create and manage and deliver that information using their PC, we have to make sure that that information can easily be consumed on a non-PC. We're doing a little bit of that today with the Adobe Reader in Japan, so we make some money there.
Does that suggest a change in what your customers use to create content?
Most of our constituents will still use their PCs to create that information because the CPU horsepower is still going to be better for sophisticated creators of information.
In the battle between media players, is the standards issue again going to be an impediment?
We'll support every format that makes sense. Many of our customers use QuickTime. Many use Window Media Player. Not as many customers use Real — but we'll continue to support the Real Player. However, we will take advantage of the Flash Player — especially for Web sites. The lightness of it and the quality — it seems to be taking off. Plus, if you look at the installed base of Flash, it is greater than any of the other video players on the Web.
Do you see that as a differentiator for Adobe?
A major differentiator for both Adobe and Macromedia. If you look at our [combined] reach and the proliferation of PDFs and Flash, our reach is greater than that of Microsoft because Microsoft is only on one platform.
Speaking of Microsoft, will you be running into each other a lot more?
The reality is Microsoft and Adobe have been competing for a number of years. Go back 20 years to when Microsoft tried to do a PostScript competitor... and that was a total failure. But they tried.
The one that I remember intimately was PhotoDraw. It bundled in with Office and was designed to knock off Illustrator and Photoshop... a total failure. And now you have Digital Imaging Pro. They really haven't been that successful at it, but they haven't stopped trying.
As much as I prefer not to butt heads against...
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