Adobe Systems announced to solution providers and others that it was going to demonstrate new graphics and media products at Macworld.  Still, solution providers say that the delay on the product launch is inhibiting sales of some related Apple products.

Adobe and a few other ISV’s are going to push Apple products at the San Francisco conference and get a head start on introducing important products for Intel-based machines that will appear on the market mid-way through the year.

Adobe announced on Thursday to solution providers that its next generation of Adobe Production Studio will be offered for Mac and Windows programs.  The suite includes Adobe Premiere, Adobe Encore and Soundbooth and will debut at Macworld.  In December Adobe also released a beta version of Photoshop CS3 for Mac and for Windows.

The software has not yet been optimized for Intel-based Macs, but solution providers state it will be critical to the evolution of Apple’s new machines.  Many users have decided to stall upgrading hardware because of the delay of the product’s release, causing Apple’s hardware sales to waver slightly.  Musicians and artists are particularly eagerly awaiting the release to update machines because of what the new software will do for their music editing and web-page design abilities.  Customers are expected to be quick to update systems once the products from Adobe become available, according to both Apple spokespeople and top solution providers.  The beta version alone helped improve the market for Apple products and probably contributed to the company’s overall sales increase last year.

According to solution providers, the new Adobe upgrade is a major improvement to the Mac offering of products and will help position Apple to be a competitor in the marketplace.  Software that lets Macs run on more than one platform will also help the Apple channel.  Solution providers have reported that 15 to 20 percent of those that buy sophisticated Mac machines opt to get software that allows them to run Windows.

Aside from the Adobe products, solution providers believe that Microsoft will upgrade and release a new version of Office for the Mac that will ship later in the year.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit