In one of the year's most focussed and informative software industry interviews, Silicon.com's Tony Hallet talks Apple, Microsoft, and China with Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen.
Bruce Chizen on China:
Every time I talk about China I get into trouble! I know I irritate the Chinese government – it’s frustrating. We’ll do – and these are approximate numbers – about the equivalent of $300m in business in Japan. We have similar market share in China – it’s all Adobe – and we’ll do maybe $3m to $5m. It’s a problem.
Bruce Chizen on Microsoft:
For years now we have been anticipating a move by Microsoft – it’s actually taken them a lot longer than I thought it would.…We set in place a strategy a number of years ago to deal with it.
Those nights where I get up in the middle of the night and think ‘OK, they’re doing PDF creation’ and so on… as I toss and turn and think about those things, then I think about the list [of other issues Microsoft is facing] and go back to sleep. I don’t want to give them more credit than they deserve.
Bruce Chizen on Apple:
Loyal customers, loyal to the Macintosh, is good news for Adobe. The challenge will always be that Apple will look at developing its own software that in some areas will compete with Adobe, as they did in the video area. There will always be that tension. But I look at Apple much more as a friend.
Read the full interview on Silicon.com.