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The Agenda Setters: Adobe chief sets out future of PDA apps

By Dominic Maher

Published: Thursday 06 July 2000

Bruce Chizen, president of Adobe, has admitted that his company is not well-placed to benefit from the current crop of mobile internet access devices - but claims it's in the perfect position to benefit from the next generation, which will be able to display multimedia content.

Chizen told silicon.com in this week's Agenda Setters programme: "In terms of mobile devices, we see it going in two different directions. Somebody who owns a text-based phone is probably not very exciting for Adobe because we're all about differentiating people's communications.

"But we do see mobile devices moving in a different direction where there will be colour LCD displays that will require rich graphics and the ability to even do things like quick video snippets. That plays into Adobe's strength."

He added: "What we enable people to do is create very rich, compelling websites and then allow those websites to be viewed on any device.

Having guided Adobe through a slump, with overheads dwarfing revenue, Chizen said the internet played a major part in turning around the company's fortunes. "We now do almost half of our business over the web, which amounts to around $550 to $600m," he said.

But there's more to come, he added: "Probably the biggest impact on Adobe and its customers will be the advent of broadband, high-speed connection to the web either through wireless access protocols or through DSL or cable modems. That's going to allow more and more organisations to communicate in a very compelling way," he said.

You can watch the full interview with Bruce Chizen in the Internet Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a38433 )