<<If you don't think that Photoshop and After Effects are utilized by PROFESSIONAL graphics artists and digital video editors, then I must conclude you are speaking from ignorance. >>
Hey fella, lighten up!
I used to be professional graphic designer. And yes, I used those products.
However, I have met many people who have shelled out thousands of $$s for graphics tablets, PhotoShop, Director, etc. who are simply mediocre.
My guess is a large number of purchasers are not professionals. They are wannabees. They buy the stuff, thinking it'll make them instant designers and end up shelving the software to go back to their jobs as accountants, secretaries, donut salesmen, etc.
What annoys me is that I'm seeing the software being retailed more and more as a CONSUMER product. We're one step away from seeing PhotoShop sold at K-Mart. Once you have your PROFESSIONAL product labelled as a CONSUMER product, you start to see cheap knock-offs that cause you to lower your margins.
I already know of at least four PhotoShop-like products that are Adobe's competitors (Microsoft gives theirs away for free). Ultimately, Adobe loses their returns on the development costs.
Professionals make up hundreds of units of sales and they will religiously follow Adobe. It's the thousands of units of sales to consumers that Adobe must gain. However, they have to compete with the low-level knockoffs that steal their development ideas.
In a few years, we'll start seeing competitors outta the woodwork in the video-editing field. I think MSFT already has free video-editing software to download from their website.
It's these mediocre consumers that also lower the salaries of the true PROFESSIONAL designers and editors by flooding the market with their novice skills.
Yea, they might be looking into small niche marketing. Hey! They did it before with Apple!
Anyway, Adobe just announced that they will continue to support Apple. Good luck all you "professionals" out there. If you don't know how to apply a Gaussian blur, or constrain a path, get off the computer!
-Bill_H |
