Well well well, what do we have here. Adobe and Microsoft joining forces perhaps? The New York Times reports:
Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s corporate offices in San Francisco to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.
The meeting, which lasted over an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could partner in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.
Interesting stuff, but just another example of companies failing to successfully take on Apple by focusing more so on what Apple’s doing than on their own initiatives.
With Microsoft now but a vestige of the smartphone player it once was, Windows Phone 7 is Redmond’s last ditch effort to stay somewhat relevant in a market now dominated by RIM, Apple, and Google. That said, how a Microsoft/Adobe partnership, or even acquisition, might help battle Apple is beyond me. If anything, the fact that these two tech titans are even huddling together to discuss how to find off the growing influence of Apple merely serves to underscore a) how quickly Apple has taken the smartphone market by storm b) how scared both companies are of Apple and Steve Jobs and c) how ill-prepared each company is to realistically take on Apple one-on-one.
October 7th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
LOL, ok, sure, join forces against Apple…while Google steals the smartphone market out from under your noses. Steve Ballmer really hates Apple. So much so that he’s going to take MS down with him like Captain Ahab going after Moby Dick. Focus inward, Steve, not outward. Apple’s not the problem, YOU are.
October 7th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
What do they mean by “take down Apple”? I thought that Microsoft was the biggest and most powerful force in the computer universe. Why would the mighty Microsoft need to join forces with another company to take down some small company that doesn’t even have close to major market share in either the desktop or mobile sector? I thought that Apple was a joke to Microsoft and hardly a worthy adversary. After all, Windows is on over 90% of the world’s computers. Besides, it’s Google’s Android that’s eating Windows Mobile’s lunch and most likely Window Phone 7’s lunch, too, not the iPhone. If consumers don’t like Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s goose will be cooked, no matter what those two CEO’s join forces to do.
I agree that both of those CEO’s must really hate Steve Jobs for diddling with them. They’d better both move fast because by next year Apple is going to be wealthier than both of those companies combined (actually Apple already is wealthier than both of them together by market cap) but I mean by incoming revenue. By next year, Apple should have about $50 billion in reserve cash which is more than most company’s outright market cap. I sure wish Apple could find a worthwhile company to merge with but it seems like any other company is just a step down instead of up.
October 9th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
News flash: Two losers don’t make a winner. 🙂