Adobe-professional-video-224x109If this were a political news outlet I'd be obliged to give both parties in the Adobe-Apple 2012 "election" equal time, and so after the news that Apple will release Final Cut Pro X next week, let's follow it up with a look at Adobe's professional video plans. Here's Adobe's Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager of Professional Video, contextualizing and explaining Adobe's vision for the future:

Here are some stats from Adobe (via ProVideo Coalition) on their video programs:


  • 22% year over year growth (the highest in the industry)
  • 45% growth on Mac (fueled by people switching from Final Cut Pro)
  • Growth from less than 1 million seats in 2006 to 2.3 million in 2010
  • 30% increase in unit sales from CS4 to CS5
  • 2 million installed seats of Premiere Pro

Our current installed base for Premiere Pro alone is well over 2 million worldwide. This makes Adobe the clear industry leader in video editing and in the entire video content creation workflow. Just like Adobe Photoshop has been the gold standard in digital imaging for many years, Adobe Premiere Pro is on a clear path to become the ‘Photoshop of video’ – the industry standard all professionals rely upon.

2 million Premiere Pro users, huh? Interesting -- that's the exact same number of users Apple claimed in their Final Cut Pro X presentation this year. We'll see whether Final Cut Pro X tilts the scales -- in either company's favor.

One area where Adobe is putting in work that Apple has not (to date) is in the screenwriting process. Has anyone out there used Adobe Story (which is free until April 2012)?

[via Richard Harrington]