It has been a while since I paid attention to whatever Quark or Adobe or even Canto were up to - until today. I founded and ran a company that lived this market called Extensis in 1993 and sold it in 2000. I don't really miss it to tell the truth, the market leaders are intellectually lazy and creatively bankrupt, but the work Apple has done in recent years is refreshing I'll admit.
Today I discovered an article today by Sandee Cohen (who my previous company Extensis used to work with frequently and is a well regarded industry guru) all about Quark's launch event in NYC and her first impressions. Interesting, and glad to hear Quark is still in the game. Their staying relevant keeps it interesting. That said it sounds like Adobe's CS3 is around the corner and it may be still too little, too late for Quark. We'll see. Ever since Adobe applied the "suite" model to their core apps (a la MS Office) I think most saw it as the beginning of the end for Quark.
As we all suspected back in 2000 or so, if Adobe ever pulled their head out they could crush Quark. Not sure what took them so long. Over the past several years wall street and others have ignored the graphics software sector even though it is a large and very profitable sector of the industry. Even Microsoft has gotten in the game with their "Expression" line. It will likely take them 5 revs to get it right ....but NEVER count out their relentless approach (nevermind how slow and how long it takes them.)
Adobe owns this market it seems with the elegantly integrated InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop trio, but I do wish Quark well. Both will lose to Microsoft in the long run if the 800lb gorilla decides to really go after the creative professional. Will they? No. It's too small. the TAM for these apps plus Quark is probably about $1.2B, maybe $1.5B. Too small for Redmond to care unless a strategic argument can made to elevate its importance with the powers that be. That's my $.02 anyway.
