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I can also say Figma avoided Adobe going into "destroy mode" with a similar product. We recognize Adobe XD as incapable, but with Adobe's resources, they'd hav

I can also say Figma avoided Adobe going into "destroy mode" with a similar product. We recognize Adobe XD as incapable, but with Adobe's resources, they'd have thrown enough money until they achieved it. Of course there are exceptions: same cannot be said of Google Video and YouTube.

drcongo 3y ago
Adobe could have thrown $40B at it and never made a product to rival Figma because it would have been riddled with Adobe Updater, Adobe Service Manager, Adobe SwitchBoard, AdobeARMservice and all the other crap they force on their users, and nobody would bother. They get away with this kind of user hostility for software they're entrenched in, they'd never get away with it if they were trying to challenge something that's better and doesn't hate its users as much.
- HlessClaudesman 3y ago
  Yeah I hear what you are saying about services bloat, but the timing of today's XD discontinuance leaves me scratching my head. If this providing a web design / prototyping service was so valuable to Adobe subscribers that Adobe were willing to pay 20 billion for it, surely it must still be worth something to Adobe to prevent subscriber churn today. I don't get why Adobe would abandon a foothold in this corner of design, offering a good enough service is still compelling when bundled when all their other products. Three explanations I can come up with are: 1. Maybe XD was a huge cash hole / or massively underperformed in some other metrics, 2. If Adobe cant dominate a market they take their ball and go home, or 3. Maybe more charitably, Adobe bigwigs still like Figma and have some sort of personal incentives to walk off the pitch and offer their competitor a massive open goal. Is this how corporations are supposed to act?
  - toyg 3y ago
    You just have cause and effect the wrong way around, IMHO. Adobe might have tried to buy Figma precisely because they already knew XD was a dead duck. Announcing it before acquisition talks, however, would have strengthened Figma's hand; so they waited and pulled the plug only after that situation was resolved.
  - jcheng 3y ago
    Timing wise, maybe they had long since decided they have no path to winning with XD, but were holding off on pulling the trigger until they had Figma in their stable. I can’t guess what their reasons were but I have worked in and near teams that have given up on being competitive with their rivals (but “it’s part of a winning bundle”). It was extremely rough on morale for those teams and everything those teams touched.

drcongo 3y ago

Adobe could have thrown $40B at it and never made a product to rival Figma because it would have been riddled with Adobe Updater, Adobe Service Manager, Adobe SwitchBoard, AdobeARMservice and all the other crap they force on their users, and nobody would bother. They get away with this kind of user hostility for software they're entrenched in, they'd never get away with it if they were trying to challenge something that's better and doesn't hate its users as much.

HlessClaudesman 3y ago
Yeah I hear what you are saying about services bloat, but the timing of today's XD discontinuance leaves me scratching my head. If this providing a web design / prototyping service was so valuable to Adobe subscribers that Adobe were willing to pay 20 billion for it, surely it must still be worth something to Adobe to prevent subscriber churn today. I don't get why Adobe would abandon a foothold in this corner of design, offering a good enough service is still compelling when bundled when all their other products. Three explanations I can come up with are: 1. Maybe XD was a huge cash hole / or massively underperformed in some other metrics, 2. If Adobe cant dominate a market they take their ball and go home, or 3. Maybe more charitably, Adobe bigwigs still like Figma and have some sort of personal incentives to walk off the pitch and offer their competitor a massive open goal. Is this how corporations are supposed to act?
- toyg 3y ago
  You just have cause and effect the wrong way around, IMHO. Adobe might have tried to buy Figma precisely because they already knew XD was a dead duck. Announcing it before acquisition talks, however, would have strengthened Figma's hand; so they waited and pulled the plug only after that situation was resolved.
- jcheng 3y ago
  Timing wise, maybe they had long since decided they have no path to winning with XD, but were holding off on pulling the trigger until they had Figma in their stable. I can’t guess what their reasons were but I have worked in and near teams that have given up on being competitive with their rivals (but “it’s part of a winning bundle”). It was extremely rough on morale for those teams and everything those teams touched.