Adobe takes on the Office suites Video

Adobe takes on the Office suites Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:02

>> I'm Charlie Cooper. When you think about online office switch, you normally think immediately about Google or Microsoft, but there's another kid on the block and coming on fast, Adobe Systems. I'm here with CNET's Elsa Wenzel and Elsa has been taking a look at Adobe's latest beta release, which is now publicly available and it has and I've gotta consult my notes, because there's too much stuff here. You've got a word processor, a Web conferencing white board app, online file sharing, file storage and a PDF converter. It's a lot. You've had an early look. What's your impression so far?

>> Well, so far the interface of the online services looks very nice. It's a little more jazzy than say, that of Google Docs or some of Microsoft services. However, I'm having a problem logging in.

>> Oh-uh, no to Google -- no to Adobe, excuse me.

>> They really -- the key thing here is that Adobe is integrating Flash content into PDFs and so along with the release of the new Acrobat 9, which is set for July, we'll have PDFs that can play movies and they can even embed applications potentially. You also have the...

>> That's a significant enhancement.

>> Yes. That means somebody who's making PDFs can integrate video content or animation and that way when someone is opening a PDF in Acrobat Reader, they won't need another multimedia player. So that means, Adobe Acrobat...

>> Which is always a bust.

>> Reader now has built-in video capabilities. So you don't need to open Real Player or other players.

>> I've looked the screen shots and from an aesthetic point of view, they've done a pretty decent job. It looks a heck of a lot nicer than the competing apps that you see from Google or Microsoft.

>> Right. There's not as much white space. There's more dark space. So, I think they've done a nice job with the design. However, it's a little tricky when you can't actually get in.

>> Could present a problem. Who do you think Adobe is aiming to target with these apps. Is the customer set a big different from the folks who might use Microsoft Office or Google apps.

>> Well, WebEx folks might want to worry because the conferencing capabilities are pretty attractive, Google Docs has a slightly different tact. Now here Adobe is not releasing a spreadsheet or presentations tool. Although, now with Acrobat 9 you'll be able to convert Power Point to Flash that can fold into a PDF, so there is some overlap there as well.

>> So, if it works out as intended, we've got a very, very, very viable alternative to the big guys.

>> I think, especially for business users, this should be something where people who are creating Rich documents who wants to collaborate with other people from across the country in the same company might turn to these services.

>> Great stuff. I've been speaking with Elsa Wenzel, I'm Charlie Cooper. ^M00:03:05 [ Music ]