Adobe - not much to say about Acrobat

I listened to the sound for the Earnings Call yesterday and have found a transcript today. There will be more detail on CS5 in April but what interests me is Acrobat.or rather PDF. Apparently there will be an Acrobat release later in 2010, linked to Acrobat.com. So CS5 is not much related to PDF or hard copy. Seems mostly about Flash, getting content into video and mobile phones.

Acrobat is still significant. It seems to account for much of the income. Sales pretty steady even though there is no recent release or new features. But the reason I cannot find much speculation about Acrobat 10 could be that there is actually not much happening. On the blogs there are reports about Acrobat Connect as a Flash app for the iPhone. But this is not PDF.

I think the classic print and publishing industry should pay attention to the early part of the statement from Shantanu Narayen

With general availability expected beginning in Q2, 10.1 is the first run time release of the Open Screen project enabling uncompromised web browsing of expressive content, high definition video and rich applications across multiple screens including desktops, smart phones, net books, internet connected DVD, new tablet devices and other consumer electronics.

Postscript sales are flat. PDF is just an income stream, there is not much buzz. There will be a low Adobe profile at IPEX, but they will still be in the background somehow.

Meanwhile Simon Eccles in Digital Printer interviews Dov Isaacs about variable data and PDF/VT. This is interesting enough, but what sort of priority for Adobe? In April there will be more information about Creative Suite 5. I doubt if PDF/VT shows up as high profile. This is just a guess obviously. But the CS5 launch will be interesting for IPEX as a guide to context on just how diverse are the communications options of which print is a part.

The Digital Printer story also mentions the Mars project, now PDFXML. This would be significant id it ever happened, a rewrite of PDF entirely in XML. But it seems very unlikely. I have stopped checking the MARS blog. I think ePUB is the supported format for reflow. That's about it.

It is surprising that cashflow for Acrobat holds up so well. A product that is not developed and not promoted would in many other circumstances experience some price pressure.