Adobe Apollo - A Marketing Analysis

PR Log (Press Release) – May 24, 2007 – Adobe’s Apollo has been around in the Alpha stage of its life for a few months now, and it would seem that in terms of exposure Apollo has been very successful.The comments that are being passed back and forth over the many thousands of ‘blogs’ and web site forums have already been speculating on why Apollo is better or worse (depending on your view point) than other favoured options.  The question that everyone is asking is where does Adobe take Apollo from here?

MDM Zinc is considered by many to be Apollo’s main rival in the Flash to Desktop debate.    Multidmedia Limited (MDM) the creators and owners of Zinc, have been at the heart of the Flash Application Development Software Industry for the past five years and are perhaps best placed to give some insight in to a potential strategy for Apollo.    

“It’s pretty difficult to second guess any companies strategy.” said Garry Bailey, Marketing Executive for Multidmedia. “They’ve obviously been out, done their research and identified what they consider to be a new market, but it does look like they’ve drawn some inconclusive results from their gap analysis and the possible demand.  Because of this, their next step has been to issue the Alpha version of Apollo on to the market, which basically gives them more time to refine their product and indulge in some more in-depth research.”

“At the moment it looks as if Adobe is doing nothing out of the ordinary.  They’re fishing, testing the water. “  

To grasp the full extent of Adobe’s strategy, it is important to understand how this sector of the industry has become the latest ‘playing field’.  The internet has played an important part in breaking the dominance of Microsoft Windows and Adobe have seized upon this.  They’ve developed so much software that they are able to make web browsing much more appealing, and Adobe have lead the way with Flash.  

Multidmedia’s Garry Bailey has his own ideas as to Adobe’s strategy from this point. “I should imagine that they will be looking to recruit from their active installed base.  The targets will be mainly the small consultancies and large companies who have already committed to Adobe in the development of their internal and external web applications.”  

“It’s from here that the road could get rocky, because they now have to try and convert people to using Apollo.  The key to their success will depend on how well the product is pitched; they will need to demonstrate the advantages of Apollo to everyone.“

With Microsoft announcing ‘Silverlight,’ in the same week Sun Inc. announcing ‘Java FX’ and the continuing presence of MDM Zinc, this could prove to be the most difficult task of all.