Thursday, May 29, 2008 |
Category:
Software |
After leading the page layout sweepstakes for many years, QuarkXPress was slowly but surely falling behind Adobe InDesign in sales and functionality as the #1 page layout program (primarily for print). When Bruce Chisholm was at the helm at Adobe he championed the concept that Microsoft has used so effectively for years: bundle a bunch of strong applications into a “suite” and become untouchable in the market.
I still feel that Microsoft Office is more of a Halloween grab bag that a true suite of software. While there are meaningful software connections between Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc., I for one rarely exploit those connections. They must add value for some users, but the function of these disparate products is so…disparate…I find the major advantage of Microsoft Office is just saving big bucks over buying a program I use daily (Word), frequently (PowerPoint), infrequently (Excel) and never (Access). And then there’s Microsoft Publisher which I use (never).
Adobe’s Creative Suite makes a lot more sense. Most designers use Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat. Adobe InDesign, which was still behind the 8-ball when Creative Suite first entered the market, suddenly became more appealing as part of a bundle. The first versions of Adobe Creative Suite also tossed in Adobe’s ill-fated Web-authoring application, GoLive.
Fast forward to today, with the announcement of version 8 of QuarkXPress. The first thing to note is that this product will appear just over two years since the last upgrade to the software (oddly enough called QuarkXPress 7). This from a company where you used to be able to raise a family in the gap between upgrades. As such Quark is approaching Adobe’s revision calendar, usually about 18 months between versions.
The initial reaction of several commentators to QuarkXPress 8 is in the ho-hum category, but I think that QuarkXPress 8, while officially a new version, has to be seen as the completion of the major revision that was version 7. I wrote about that release on my Gilbane blog, “The Importance of QuarkXPress 7.0,” and also in a Quark-commissioned brochure, “QuarkXPress 7 for Output Service Providers.”
The best commentary on the new version is found, somewhat ironically, on AppleInsider, which I now discover leaked the news on May 13. Its commentary examines in some depth the smart moves that Quark is making to try to bring the software into parity with Adobe InDesign and make it compatible with Creative Suite 3. That’s an essential mission for Quark, while it continues into other market areas with products like the Quark Dynamic Publishing System (which I cover here).
And of course Quark needs to keep checking to see who’s walking behind in the darkened alley: if Adobe sticks with its 18-month revision cycle, Creative Suite 4 will be available by the end of this year.
Thursday, March 6, 2008 |
Category:
Software |
Check out the new section of the Quark Web site on what they're calling the "Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution." Dynamic Publishing is something altogether new for Quark, and reflects, I think, the relatively recent infusion of a host of senior staff from the old Arbortext (now owned by PTC).
Arbortext offered what was called an "enterprise-class" high-end XML-based publishing system. It cost plenty, and was strictly directed at the largest publishing organizations that could consider spending $1 million to get "mission-critical" information into print (and on the Web). Great technology, but very limited because of price and complexity. How do you take the best of the concepts from a high-end system like Arbortext's and bring those into the world of mere mortals? When you mix the culture of a group from Arbortext with a consumer-oriented off-the-shelf software company like Quark interesting things are bound to emerge. They could be calamitous; they could be fascinating.
Quark's Dynamic Publishing is fascinating to me for several reasons. First, it recognizes (finally) that print is no longer the sheriff in this town -- the Web shot the sheriff. Second, it fully embraces that publishing is a content-centric endeavor, and the particular output medium is secondary to the content (for traditional publishers -- Facebook is another story!). Of great importance in this announcement is that Quark has become the first big-time software publisher that appears to appreciate that the XML in Office 2007 can and should be fully exploited in contemporary publishing workflows.
Finally the technology acknowledges that the future of authoring is the assembly of what I call RCOs (reusable content objects -- Quark calls them "content components"). I define RCOs as "the smallest content blocks which have discernible meaning." These blocks have to be assembled in very different ways depending on the output medium, and few cross-media publishing systems appear to have a clue about how important this has become to authoring.
OK, Quark Dynamic Publishing is just an announcement so far, but it's got more good ideas built into it than anything I've heard about in months.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 |
Category:
Software |
As I wrote in my blog yesterday, The Adobe War Against Microsoft, “I continue to marvel at Adobe’s ‘Mouse That Roared’ approach to the battle: its market cap is slightly less than 10% of Microsoft’s.” I also referred to the “battle between the emerging Adobe and the great Goliath.”
Of course market capitalization, $26 billion for Adobe versus $280 billion for Microsoft, tells only a small part of the story. Adobe’s stock is on a tear. Its price has risen more than 350% in the past five years, against the Dow Jones software industry average of 84%, and against Microsoft’s shall we say more modest 29%.
But other financial indicators reveal the two companies performing quite competitively. While Adobe enjoys more than 13% higher gross margins than Microsoft, its pretax margins differ by less than half of one percent. Adobe has seen some 3.5% higher revenue growth than Microsoft in the last five years, but Microsoft’s earnings per share are nearly 10% higher than Adobe’s. Microsoft has significantly higher revenue per employee and income per employee, which few would suspect considering that sales and income per employee traditionally tend to favor the smaller (though mature) players.
Nonetheless, the blogosphere is rife with criticism of Microsoft (as it so often is). Dave Winer’s October 1st posting is titled The end of the road for Office? He’s pretty upset, accusing Microsoft of deliberating avoiding enabling writing capabilities in Internet Explorer to protect its Word (and Office) franchise. If “Microsoft had embraced the web, and with it the shift in their product line and economics, in 1995, we’d have a much richer writing environment today,” he writes. “Blogging would have happened sooner, in a bigger way. It’s hard to imagine how much the sins of Microsoft cost all of us.”
He caps his lament with: “I won’t shed a tear for Office. Good riddance, I say.”
On ZDNet Phil Wainewright paints a more nuanced picture of the conflict, and also provides some excellent insight into the features of Buzzword, the application that Adobe acquired when it bought Virtual Ubiquity.
Robert Scoble, always a good read, titles his blog entry Adobe joins rest of industry in going for Microsoft’s throat. He comments however: “Now, is Microsoft in trouble? No. Office is going to sell well for quite a few years still. But there is blood in the water.”
How much blood is in the water remains to be analyzed by CSI’s forensic team.
As noted in Monday’s Wall Street Journal report on the transaction, the trend towards online use of Microsoft’s traditional Office-style tools “has yet to fully take off, said Michael Mace, a principal at technology-consulting firm Rubicon Consulting Inc. In a survey of more than 2,000 adults who have a computer at home, conducted this past summer, Rubicon found that while 34% of computer owners have used Web-based email services and 20% have played games online, Web-based services for word processing and spreadsheets have been used by just 5% and 3% of computer users, respectively.”
But there’s clearly a change afoot. How it plays out will make excellent sport for all technology watchers.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 |
Category:
Software |
The news reports are trickling in tonight regarding today’s prepared statement from Adobe, served with a heaping helping of humble pie, announcing that it will remove the “Send to FedEx Kinko’s” button and menu option from the 8.1.1 update of Acrobat Reader, planned for an October 2007 release.
The printing industry is tonight dancing on its presses, tossing its righteous indignation into the recycle bin, and praising Adobe for its responsible response.
Joe Truncale, who runs the respected printing trade group the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) is quoted as saying “We’re pleased that Adobe was responsive….Clearly this was a mistake, and Adobe admitted that.” I haven’t seen Adobe’s statement (it’s not posted on their Web site as of this evening), but more likely the phrase should be “and Adobe implicitly admitted that.”
Michael Makin, who runs the larger printing trade organization PIA/GATF noted in a press release that “We recognize that the company must have had to move mountains to retreat on its position, and we commend Adobe for its swift action…They have clearly restored confidence in our long-lasting partnership.”
For a provocative and amusing counterpoint to how printing companies were handling this “outrage,” check out my friend and colleague Gene Gable’s column on creativepro.com.
The summer storm has passed. The only recorded injuries were to pride (and, I imagine, corporate relations between Adobe and FedEx).
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 |
Category:
Software |
Many of you will have by now heard of Adobe’s great gaffe in Acrobat 8.1 of licensing FedEx/Kinko’s to add a little button to the Acrobat toolbar making in a no-brainer for users to send their output files to that large and well-respected chain of, dare I say it, “quick printers.” The button can easily be removed through the options menu, but you’re still stuck in the File menu with the same “feature,” which Adobe admits can only be removed with more extensive system surgery (for example, in Windows, using resedit).
Adobe has a proud and essentially unassailable history as a non-partisan vendor (at least in matters resembling this). It’s a great company. When I first got requests from the press about the story I said: “Forget it. It’s a tempest in a teapot. Someone made a big mistake, and Adobe will fix it.”
Sadly (for Adobe) the press moves more rapidly than Adobe does, and the company did not fix the problem quickly (most likely having a lot to do with the agreement somebody signed with FedEx/Kinko’s) and today the story hit the Wall Street Journal, of all places.
There are printing industry associations calling for bloodletting, and no end of commentators looking for more.
This will pass like a summer’s storm. Forget about it!
Well, after wasting a whole lot of time following the automated advice from Sony, I Googled the error message and found a solution on the Microsoft Web site. It involved making changes to the registry (which, as we are always advised, is as dangerous as playing with a neutron bomb). But they worked. The optical drive is back and working fine.
So I immediately tried to install my brand new copy of Adobe's CS3. Error! Error! Does not compute. I got the "2739" message! No steps were recommended on how to solve it.
I'm fortunate to have a few contacts at Adobe, and was eventually referred to an Adobe "TechNote" (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=kb401521) which in this case challenged me to change the registry via the old MS-DOS interface (when will this finally disappear from the Microsoft's various OSs?). The instructions were a trifle arcane, but I summoned all of my old skills, and soon succeeded. CS3 will soon take over the remaining space on my hard drive. Success! (?!?!??)
One of my clients is doing some work with Microsoft Vista. (I can’t figure it out: is it Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista, or just Microsoft Vista?) So I bought a new Sony VAIO computer with Vista Business Edition pre-installed, knowing that if I tried to install Vista over Windows XP I would probably destroy everything I ever loved or cared for (digitally speaking).
Vista seemed alright for a an hour or two. There’s some cute little graphic do-dads in the interface. It’s very uptight about security, and that began to annoy me fairly quickly (I’ll write a whole lot more about this later).
I basically toyed with the computer for the first week or two, not spending a whole lot of time with it, preparing for what I feared would be a soon-to-be broken heart (digitally speaking). I stuck with my old XP VAIO as my main computer.
A few days back the computer offered me a bunch of software upgrades, most of them related to the software that Sony pre-installs on the computer. What could be wrong with installing those, I figured (not realizing how idiotic I soon would feel)?
Anyway, the net result was that these upgrades (I assume it’s these, as I haven’t done anything else to the puppy) somehow disabled my DVD drive. I got a dialog box that first alerted me to the problem that contained the text: "Please try to close the tray after close all the using softwares or after shutdown the system and then start the Windows (stet)."
After decoding this message, I went through all of the steps that the average computer dummy tries — a bunch of restarts, playing with the control panel, trying to uninstall the driver and so on. All to no effect.
Although it was late in the evening when frustration turned to rage, I discovered that I could still obtain online chat support. What follows is my conversation with Sony’s technician:
——————————
user Thad has entered room
analyst Casey_ has entered room
Casey_> Hi Thad. Welcome to Sony Online Support. I'm Casey. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.
Casey_> Thanks for waiting, Thad. I'm sorry that the DVD Drive is not working. I’ll be happy to assist you with this.
Thad> Thanks
Casey_> Have you made any Hardware or Software changes since it last worked normally?
Thad> I installed all recommended software updates which included several for VIAO media center, etc.
Thad> I also tonight did a roll-back to yesterday, although probably I installed the updates a few days ago
Thad> No hardware changes
Thad> Also, the problem started before the roll-back -- the roll-back didn't help
Casey_> Please check whether you see yellow exclamation mark on any of the devices listed in the Device Manager Window.
Thad> Yes, on that drive
Casey_> I would like to forward a link to a page where you can view the steps to troubleshoot this issue.
Casey_> When you receive the link please click on it to open the page and let me know if you are able to view it.
Casey_> http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponsev4.asp?id=502466
Thad> OK
Thad> I did restart -- it doesn't detect the drive
Thad> "Restart the computer.
NOTE: Wait a few seconds for the CD/DVD to be detected before double-clicking to access it.
Ensure the disc is clean and free of smudges, fingerprints and scratches, and that it is inserted correctly.
NOTE: The label should be facing up for CD and single sided DVD discs.
Try a different disc in the drive." ---- I DID THAT
Casey_> Are you able to view the page?
Thad> Yes...did you not see my response? I quoted from the page -- the drive does not appear.
Casey_> Thad, please follow the steps in the article as each step is a possible solution. Also click on the sub links provided on the page for further information.
Thad> Also, did a virus scan 2 days ago
Thad> Please read the page again yourself. It is not relevant. What part is relevant if the drive does not appear?
Casey_> Did you perform all the thirteen steps mentioned on the page?
Thad> YES!
Casey_> The troubleshooting steps listed on the page should resolve this issue. If you have completed all of the steps and the issue is not resolved, service may be required.
Casey_> Shall I forward a page where you can locate your nearest service location and setup a work order for the repair.
Casey_> http://eservice.sony.com/
Casey_> Please enter the Model #, the Zip Code and the Date of Purchase to initiate the service.
Thad> How am I expected to understand this instruction:
Thad> "Reset the computer BIOS to the default values." That's far beyond my knowledge, understanding or ability
Casey_> Thad, I'm sorry, Let me forward another link where you can view the steps to reset the BIOS. Let me know when you're there.
Thad> I've used this computer for a total of 8 hours. I'm heartbroken!
Casey_> http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponsev4.asp?id=94679
Casey_> I'm sorry for the inconvenience you're experiencing with the CD/DVD Drive.
Thad> Thanks, for the link. Let's give up now. I appreciate your earnest effort!
Casey_> You're welcome.
Casey_> Please perform the steps mentioned on the page. This should resolve the issue.
Casey_> Also please click on the sublinks for more information.
Thad> And then I will fly to the moon in a rocket I designed myself!
Casey_> If the issue persists please feel free to contact us here again at your convenience.
Thad> Good night. Thank you.
Casey_> Thad, I wish you a happy journey.
Thad> To the moon?
Casey_> Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
Thad> Yes. Solve my problem! Bye bye.
Casey_> Thad, we value your feedback, if you could share your thoughts about this chat session by filling out the short 3-question survey that will appear after this chat is completed it would be highly appreciated.
Thad> OK
Casey_> I enjoyed chatting with you, hope you had a positive experience and enjoyed this chat session.
Casey_> Thank you for contacting Sony Online support. Please feel free to contact us for further assistance.
Thad> You betcha!
———————————————-
You may have gathered that I was lying about going through the 13 steps (12 might have been more appropriate, but certainly no more effective). I’ve now performed them, as well as a few bonus steps (such as uninstalling all the Sony upgrades). The drive still does not work.
I could wax bitterly upon my feelings about all of this but I think I’ve said enough.
