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Can you really call it a dying company when their annual revenue has tripled over the last seven years? This isn't the downfall of Adobe. This is the most succe

Can you really call it a dying company when their annual revenue has tripled over the last seven years? This isn't the downfall of Adobe. This is the most successful they've ever been.

tomaskafka 6y ago
This is how a milking stage of a product looks like, it's a last stage before death.
- doublerabbit 6y ago
  However in this case there is no death. Adobe is the de-facto for drawing to photo manipulation. While there may be open-source alternatives however Adobe is kept alive via media & enterprise where there is no alternative. edit: downvoted?
  - wongarsu 6y ago
    They are clearly losing market segment after market segment. Flash and Dreamweaver have lost the Internet market, Flash/Animate is no longer the clearly dominant software for 2d animation for media and television, XD is losing the web UX community, Photoshop is losing the hobby and semi-professional drawing community. Adobe has enough momentum and moat that their demise will stretch over decades, and they could halt their fall at any point. Retaking market segments that are lost is hard, but regaining the trust of those about to leave is a lot easier. But if they keep course their eventual fall into irrelevance is inevitable.
  - 5560675260 6y ago
    > de-facto for drawing I don't think that this is still true - most artists switched to CSP, Procreate, various other programs. There isn't really an industry standard any more.
    - doublerabbit 6y ago
      > There isn't really an industry standard any more. It is utilized heavily within Animation. Universal, Disney, are all heavy users of Adobe, unless that's changed in the past two years. source: I had a gig for an medium sized animation studio, a large amount of artists all wanted and used adobe.
- urthor 6y ago
  The milking stage can go on for a very, very long time. Never underestimate it.
wongarsu 6y ago
Many companies could triple their revenue by focusing on short term gains over long term profit. The mix of less piracy, no used software, no discounts except for the education discount (which is also halved) is bound to lead to more revenue in the short term. But it also causes a lot of people to consider their alternatives.
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
What jrockway describes is a common pattern; it's not necessarily the end of the company IME, but it's the end of the spirit of that company, whatever made them great is gone, they're riding on their laurels (relying on past 'wins'). Cadbury is a brand like this, as soon as they started smoothing corners on their chocolate bars to save a few percent volume and making the chocolate waxy they died. I expect under Kraft/Mondelez the brand is making more money than ever though. I suspect there's a transition from R&D/development spending to marketing spending that marks the change.

Can you really call it a dying company when their annual revenue has tripled over the last seven years? This isn't the downfall of Adobe. This is the most successful they've ever been.

tomaskafka 6y ago

This is how a milking stage of a product looks like, it's a last stage before death.

doublerabbit 6y ago
However in this case there is no death. Adobe is the de-facto for drawing to photo manipulation. While there may be open-source alternatives however Adobe is kept alive via media & enterprise where there is no alternative. edit: downvoted?
- wongarsu 6y ago
  They are clearly losing market segment after market segment. Flash and Dreamweaver have lost the Internet market, Flash/Animate is no longer the clearly dominant software for 2d animation for media and television, XD is losing the web UX community, Photoshop is losing the hobby and semi-professional drawing community. Adobe has enough momentum and moat that their demise will stretch over decades, and they could halt their fall at any point. Retaking market segments that are lost is hard, but regaining the trust of those about to leave is a lot easier. But if they keep course their eventual fall into irrelevance is inevitable.
- 5560675260 6y ago
  > de-facto for drawing I don't think that this is still true - most artists switched to CSP, Procreate, various other programs. There isn't really an industry standard any more.
  - doublerabbit 6y ago
    > There isn't really an industry standard any more. It is utilized heavily within Animation. Universal, Disney, are all heavy users of Adobe, unless that's changed in the past two years. source: I had a gig for an medium sized animation studio, a large amount of artists all wanted and used adobe.
urthor 6y ago
The milking stage can go on for a very, very long time. Never underestimate it.

wongarsu 6y ago

Many companies could triple their revenue by focusing on short term gains over long term profit. The mix of less piracy, no used software, no discounts except for the education discount (which is also halved) is bound to lead to more revenue in the short term. But it also causes a lot of people to consider their alternatives.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

What jrockway describes is a common pattern; it's not necessarily the end of the company IME, but it's the end of the spirit of that company, whatever made them great is gone, they're riding on their laurels (relying on past 'wins'). Cadbury is a brand like this, as soon as they started smoothing corners on their chocolate bars to save a few percent volume and making the chocolate waxy they died. I expect under Kraft/Mondelez the brand is making more money than ever though. I suspect there's a transition from R&D/development spending to marketing spending that marks the change.