Adobe and Microsoft Go To War Over PDF
You would have thought that having support for PDF embedded into the world’s most popular office application would have cheered the bosses at Adobe. Instead they seem more concerned with protecting their Acrobat product and are demanding that Microsoft remove the ability to ’save as PDF’ from Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
Reports in the Wall Street Journal suggest that Adobe is even considering sueing Microsoft on antitrust grounds over the issue.
It seems that Adobe is, like many software companies, concerned about Microsoft including support for their technology for free. If Microsoft were to charge for the PDF creation utility then it would be satisfied.
There are several questions on TechSmec.com’s mind with this one…
1) Adobe is always claiming that PDF is an ‘open’ standard. If that is the case why should Microsoft not be able to do what it wants with the technology, especially seeing as the Office rival, OpenOffice.org isn’t coming under the same scrutiny.
2) Getting the ability to create PDFs onto as many hard drives as possible should be a good thing for Adobe. The Word functionality is only a fraction of what Acrobat can do and we know from experience that once you are wedded to PDF, only Acrobat gives you the flexibility to do what you want with the format.
Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft, an independent analyst firm based in Kirkland, Washington, admitted he was surprised by Adobe’s move in a quote on Red Herring.
“I thought Microsoft’s plan for Office would build the base for the PDF format, but Adobe has apparently come to the opposite conclusion,” he said. “They believe Office output to PDF will dig into their Acrobat business too much.”
Microsoft are taking the threat very seriously and, for once, don’t seem to be up for the fight. “We offered to them that we would [ remove the save as PDF function from Office 2007 ], and now we’ve unilaterally made the decision to do it,” Microsoft spokesperson Jack Evans said on Friday.
Add comment June 5th, 2006