Adobe Inc.
Adobe Inc., commonly referred to as “Adobe”, is a large international software corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Adobe primarily develops software products targeted at the creative industry. Notable Adobe products include Photoshop (an image editing program), Premiere Pro (a video editing program), Illustrator (an illustration program utilizing vector graphics), and Flash (a discontinued software platform used to create interactive web applications). Adobe is also notable for inventing the widely-used PDF file format, which was later turned into an International Standard. Most of Adobe’s revenue is generated by the Adobe Creative Cloud, a subscription service that grants users access to the majority of software products offered by Adobe.
History
Adobe Inc. was founded as Adobe Systems Inc. in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. Adobe’s first product was the PostScript programming language, used by digital printers to structure documents. Adobe quickly became profitable, due to an early order by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer Inc. Building on the success of PostScript, Adobe entered the consumer software industry in the late 1980s with its release of the now-flagship products Illustrator (a vector-based graphics illustration program) and Photoshop (a widespread image editing program). Both Illustrator and Photoshop quickly gained popularity in their respective fields and lifted Adobe to a dominant position in the creative industry.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Adobe continued expanding via both releases of new products like the PDF file format and the Premiere Pro video editing software as well as mergers and acquisitions of competing software companies such as Macromedia Inc. and Aldus Corporation. In the early 2010s, Adobe and longtime partner Apple Inc. had a falling out over Apple Inc.’s refusal to support Adobe’s interactive web application platform Adobe Flash on Apple Inc.’s consumer electronics such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs outlined concerns over the security and reliability of Adobe Flash as well as concerns about the business practices of Adobe itself in a viral blog post titled “Thoughts on Flash”.
As the decade progressed, Adobe continued its growth independently and pivoted its business approach. Previously, Adobe had sold its software products in a downloadable one-time purchase bundle called the Adobe Creative Suite. However, in 2013, Adobe switched to a monthly subscription-based model called the Adobe Creative Cloud. This transition marked the first time a major software corporation made such a move, and signaled the start of similar transformations across the technology industry in the coming years.
Ethical Concerns
Monopolistic Practices
Concerns have arisen that Adobe engages in monopolistic practices as a result of its dominant market position in the creative industry. One such controversy occurred over the pricing of Adobe’s flagship Creative Cloud service. The cost of Adobe Creative Cloud varies across national borders, and is significantly higher in certain countries such as Australia. In 2013, the Australian Parliament launched an inquiry into the pricing of software in Australia by international tech corporations, and summoned Adobe executives to a public hearing. After the hearing, Adobe significantly lowered its prices for Australian customers.
Another controversy arose over FreeHand, a vector graphics illustration program that directly competed with Adobe Illustrator. FreeHand and Illustrator were the two major players in the digital illustration industry, and each had a large user base. In 1994, Adobe acquired Aldus Corporation, the owner of FreeHand, resulting in Adobe having dominant control over the digital illustration industry. Due to concerns about this new monopoly, the Federal Trade Commission intervened and forced Adobe to sell FreeHand to a competitor. Then, in 2005, Adobe acquired Macromedia Inc., the new owner of FreeHand. The Federal Trade Commission did not intervene, and Adobe proceeded to discontinue development of FreeHand the following year. This move caused backlash from FreeHand’s users and led to a class-action lawsuit against Adobe in 2011. The lawsuit said that Adobe had violated California and United States antitrust laws through its acquisition of Macromedia Inc. and now held an unfair monopoly over the digital illustration industry. Adobe settled the lawsuit by agreeing to incorporate features of FreeHand into Illustrator.
VoCo
Adobe VoCo is an experimental voice editing software. Using audio files of a human speaker, VoCo is able to generate new audio of that speaker saying words they did not originally speak. VoCo has raised concerns in regards to its potential for misuse by malicious actors. VoCo’s audio alteration capabilities could potentially be used as part of smear or misinformation campaigns in order to generate audio where a targeted human speaker is heard saying words they never said. VoCo additionally may be used to generate audio capable of fooling voice-based security systems.
Costs
Adobe Software is the premium company for creative software. It is sought after by designers, product teams, marketers, students and more. While some have issues with the functionality of the software, there isn't much dispute that their products are phenomenal and bring great opportunity. This, however, causes an issue in itself. The opportunity that comes with Adobe products comes at a steep price. If one wishes to pay by the month, the entire Suite costs $79.49 for every month purchases. If one is prepared to dedicate themself to an entire year, the monthly cost comes down to $52.99 per month[1]. However, the customer is locked in for the entire year and must continue to pay if they wish to cancel. This pricing technique is predatory because of the locked in nature of the cheaper price. This kind of pricing differentiation is consistent across all of their products. Many users may only want an Adobe product for a short period of time, which is deterred by Adobe's pricing plan. Additionally, the cost of the software raises considerable concern. It is predicted to continue increasing for many reasons, primarily its domination of the market.[2] Unfortunately, it is already at an unreasonable price for many of the creatives and young people that need the software. The company is able to get around this by company or school accounts that take care of many people that may not be able to purchase the software on their own. Conversely, other groups have been further pushed away from this product. Adobe costs substantially more in the EU than in the United States. Many people[3] have taken issue with this massive price difference to which Adobe has given a lackluster response. Their excuse was mostly business concerns and the fact that it costs much less money for them to conduct their business in the US. Somehow, even with all of the complaints about the price and its unfeasibility for so many creatives, the price continues to increase.[4]
References
1. Adobe voco 'Photoshop-for-voice' causes concern. (2016, November 07). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37899902
2. Cao, D. (2018). Adobe Systems Inc. Strategic Analysis and Recommendation. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=honorstheses
3. Smith, E. (2019, March 18). Is Adobe's Creative cloud too powerful for its own good? Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kgw83/is-adobes-creative-cloud-too-powerful-for-its-own-good
4. Toor, A. (2013, February 12). Adobe drops price of Creative cloud in AUSTRALIA ahead of government inquiry. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.theverge.com/2013/2/12/3979690/adobe-reduces-price-of-creative-cloud-in-australia-ahead-of-inquiry- ↑ “Creative Cloud Plans & Pricing.” Creative Cloud , www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html.
- ↑ Cohan, Peter. “Why Adobe Is Expensive And Will Keep Going Up.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 15 Dec. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2019/12/20/why-adobe-is-expensive-and-will-keep-going-up/?sh=6e2e50f1140e.
- ↑ YahorShumski, et al. “Why Creative Cloud for Europe Is so Expensive?” Https://Community.adobe.com, 20 July 2020, community.adobe.com/t5/account-payment-plan/why-creative-cloud-for-europe-is-so-expensive/td-p/4096457.
- ↑ Potuck, Michael, and Michael Potuck @michaelpotuck Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. “Adobe Doubles the Price of Its $10/Month Creative Cloud Plan for Photoshop and Lightroom.” 9to5Mac, 3 May 2019, 9to5mac.com/2019/05/02/adobe-creative-cloud-price-hike/.
