Okay, What's Adobe's Deal?

As I occasionally have to admit, I'm a Mac Addict. It's not that I am a zealous Jobs-Head; I use a PC at work, I teach use of the PC at Ohio State, and I recognize that there are many advantages to using a Windows system. It's just that my Mac use is pushing ten years now. I'm more comfortable there. It's home. I'll probably always use a Mac to do my work when I can: web design, digital imaging, you name it.

So it is with dismay that I've watched several recent Adobe product announcements, all without Mac suport. First, they updated their video and DVD authoring programs, Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe Encore DVD. At the time there was much brouh-hah-hah (sp?) about how Apple was writing competing software (Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro), and that because Apple throws around such weight with Apple Users it becomes uncompetitive for Adobe to make competing software. Fine. That makes business sense. So while I'm saddened that these great Adobe tools won't continue to be available to Macintosh users, I'll learn to live with it.

But then today, Adobe announced a new product - Adobe Atmosphere. Basically, it's a third-party plug-in that allows you to interact in a 3-D environment (that's Adobe Atmosphere Player) and an authoring environment for 3-D settings (Adobe Atmosphere proper). The problem - both the player and the authoring tool exist only for Windows machines using Internet Explorer. To quote from a recent C|Net Article:

The initial version of Atmosphere works only with Microsoft's Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser. Bahman Dara, senior product manager for Adobe, said the company is considering support for Apple Computer's Mac operating system in future versions of Atmosphere Player, but "it doesn't look like the audience is big enough for version 1."

So not only can I not develop these new, 3-D environs on my trusty Mac, I can't even view them. In fact, I can't view them on my Window's machine easily because I long abandoned IE as my browser of choice (a whole 'nother rant there, let me tell you). So while Adobe claims their aim is to "make this (3-D interfaces) reall accessible," they've made a program that forces the user to use a specific program on a specific platform only. This seems to be a choice the trades accessibility for profitability.

So this trend disturbs me deeply - both personally as a Mac user and generally as a supporter of computing accessibility and choice. In the past I've praised Adobe - they represent, to me, one of the first companies that consciously attempted to standardize their programs and user experiences across multiple platforms. Yet now they seem to be only concerned with those who use the lowest common denominator - if you chose to show initative and use your machine in a different way, you're out of luck. How ironic that this comes days after Apple released their vaunted iTunes program and iTunes Music Store for Windows users; now I can enjoy virtually the same music-listening experience no matter where I might be situtated. I just wish Adobe would show me the same courtesy.