Re: Adobe Certified Newsletter -- notice about FrameMaker

["Becky Swanson" <becky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Like all corporations, Adobe exists to make money for
its shareholders. If they could make money selling Mac Framemaker,
they'd still be doing it. It is more likely that the development and
marketing costs for Mac Framemaker didn't justify itself.

"Does anyone know or have a good guess as to those figures?"

I remember some time ago (years, actually), someone from Adobe told me that the
market share for Mac FM had dropped into the mid-single-digits (about 6 or 8
percent) of the total FM market. For the most part, engineering and technical
publications departments in larger corporations are Windows- or Unix-based.
There are exceptions, but the big-seat buyers (hundreds and thousands of seats)
are not Mac-based groups. So, as far as I know, the main reason Mac FM got
dropped was that it didn't constitute enough market share to continue to be
profitable. That doesn't help those of you for whom Mac is your preferred
platform, but I think the whole decision was a numbers-crunching deal.

I know that in 15 years of teaching FM, I've had only one or two classes ever
held on Macs or for Mac users; the majority are Windows or Unix version classes.

Best regards,
Becky Swanson
Benchmark Publications Group, Inc.
"Setting the standard in technical documentation and training"
817-939-2994



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Arrants" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "free framers" <framers@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 12:06 PM
Subject: RE: Adobe Certified Newsletter -- notice about FrameMaker



Bill Briggs writes:
>   No kidding. Why would you buy it if the thing may not exist
> in a year or two. Having a CEO who is an ex-MS guy may have
> something to do with it.

He's also an ex-Claris guy, for what that's worth.  I mean seriously--do
you think he'd base a business decision solely on the fact that he
worked for Microsoft at one time?  Doe you think the Board would go
along with that?  Like all corporations, Adobe exists to make money for
its shareholders. If they could make money selling Mac Framemaker,
they'd still be doing it. It is more likely that the development and
marketing costs for Mac Framemaker didn't justify itself.

Does anyone know or have a good guess as to those figures?


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