Interview from PC Magazine: Bruce Chizen: CEO, Adobe Systems Inc.
From 1983 to 1987, Bruce Chizen served as eastern region sales director for Microsoft's application business. Today, he's the CEO of Adobe, the maker of Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and other graphics apps. In the early nineties, Adobe was the most famous of the Mac software developers, but the company now generates a majority of its $1.6 billion in annual revenue from Windows apps.
Q: When did Adobe first start moving its apps to the Windows platform?
A: Around the time of Windows 95. Before that, it was difficult to design graphically based applications for the PC. But with 95, it became clear we would have the ability to enable that many more creative professionals.
Q: Which is the better platform: Mac or Windows?
A: Both platforms have their advantages. Mac is the more seamless interface. But right now, if you look at speed and the price/performance ratio, the Windows platform is very compelling for some applications.
Q: Microsoft recently announced tools that may compete directly with Adobe apps. Is it difficult having the dominant OS vendor competing in the applications market?
A: If you have what is essentially an OS monopoly building applications that can take advantage of its own platform, that represents a significant challenge for software vendors like Adobe. It means we have to work even harder to innovate and differentiate our solutions.
Q: When it comes to building apps for its OS, do you get much help from Microsoft?
A: They work very closely with us. If you look at Windows desktop application providers, we're one of the largest—if not the largest—outside of Microsoft itself. They have a vested interest in having apps like Photoshop and InDesign and Illustrator work really well on their platform.
Q: If Microsoft is about to announce a product that competes with one of yours, does it let you know?
A: Typically not. Usually, we don't know until we read about it.