Adobe Encore DVD Software: Mac Users Need Not Apply


Adobe plans to release its Encore DVD-burning application in the summer, but there's a catch: there won't be a Mac version, reports Associated Press.

Giving tacit acknowledgment to the fact that Apple's DVD software market is all its own, Adobe will release the $549 Prosumer application for PCs only, despite the fact that many of Adobe's most popular programs - including Photoshop, Premiere and Illustrator - are available in both Mac and PC editions.

Apple's professional DVD Studio Pro sells for $999, while the consumer iDVD is free with DVD-R-equipped Macs and $49 as part of the iLife suite. Apple also sells Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere's direct competitor, for $999.

Analysis: As IGM reported last week, the Apple-Adobe relationship has been soured by what Adobe regards as Apple's incursions upon its territory. Adobe has been exceptionally slow to react to the prosumer DVD and digital audio burning trend. Even now, Adobe won't bring this app to market until summer, during which time many DVD burners and a lot of DVD authoring software will be sold.

The question is whether Adobe deliberately intended to make this a slap in the face for Apple, or whether the company simply looked at the small size of the Mac market and found it saturated with Apple applications. Do we need Adobe to provide a competing product for iDVD and DVD Studio Pro? Only if it's better. In the case of Final Cut, Premiere isn't the superior product.

And one more thing: Encore.

What a lousy name for software.