Adobe reports great re$ult$ but loses CTO Kevin Lynch to Apple It's been a mixed day for Adobe – exceeding analyst's expectations for its first quarter financial results but having this overshadowed by the news that its long-standing CTO Kevin Lynch handed in his notice on Monday and will gone by the end of the week . "Kevin Lynch resigned from his position as Executive Vice President, …
You're not alone in that opinion. John Gruber who loves all things Apple, titled one of his posts:
"Exhibit A in the Case That Newly-Hired Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch Is a Bozo, a Bad Hire"
That is pretty strong, to say the least, from Gruber, who is usually very measured in his claims. He pretty much covers your point in that post. He then followed it up with another post:
"Exhibit B: Defending/Denying Flash Player’s Adverse Effect on Battery Life, a Mere Two Years Ago"
When he was challenged on Twitter that what he was saying was a bit strong, he then put up a post quoting a definition of the meaning of the word "Bozo."
"A bozo is someone who thinks they are much smarter and capable than they actually are. They constantly over-estimate their abilities and under-estimate the risks and threats around them. They typically don’t keep an open-mind. They look instead for data that confirms a previously held bias."
Clearly he doesn't like the man.
I can't help but wonder if this isn't a get going while the goings good situation. Adobe is not far off the situation MS is in with Office. Their products are already pretty damn awesome, they're already switching people to a subscription model which is a good sign they think people aren't going to cough up as often for upgrades. Lightroom still has legs on it, but they've dropped the pricing. PS & PPro (and to be fair most of the rest of the master suite) are very mature products so beyond the obligatory upgrades to support new codecs and cameras and improvements to gpu assist they are probably facing a harder job finding new killer must have features as time goes on. All credit to them, they have some great products but I haven't felt the need to update ps et al since cs2 and theres many that are in a similar situation. It just doesn't justify the cost.
He has probably looked at what he has done and said it ain't going to get much better here, theres a nice offer elsewhere, time to wander and if the new job tanks I have a proven track record to say it wasn't my fault look what I did at Adobe.
Of course I could be completely wrong on that :)
I've been making my living with Adobe products (running on Macs) for since the 80s. (And just recently, I gladly handed over the cash, again, for the non-rental version of CS.) Adobe has always been distinguished by a very tight focus on the preferences of **intelligent**, **knowledgeable** **end-users** doing **real work**, and **non-IT work** at that, work that must in turn **meet the needs of the end-users' customers**. Macromedia did a pretty good job of the same thing.
I'm not worried about Adobe. Their strengths predated Lynch. And in the real world, having a mature product is not a problem, as long as it works better than the competition. The Japanese gained domination of the auto industry by producing cars that needed to be replaced less frequently than Detroit's. Those cars were also rather prosaic in appearance, a strong contrast to Detroit's once much-touted glitz. Adobe's own elimination of the unlamented, once-entrenched but never-matured Quark is an even better example.
But I can't begin to imagine how the Adobe mindset will mix with Apple. I can imagine only three scenarios: 1) Lynch will leave Apple within two years, after getting nothing done. 2) Lynch has lost his mind--in which case his stay at Apple may be a long one, but will mean no change at Apple. 3) Lynch's arrival at Apple will prove to be analogous to Columbus's arrival in the Americas, with similar results for the indigenous population and for the technological level of the territory.
Apparently, it's Steve Jobs turning over in his grave. His hate for Adobe was much deeper than his forbidding Flash on iPhones and iPads and rants about the security of their products. It goes all the way back to him never forgiving Adobe for doing a Windows ports of what were previously Mac-only products that generated a lot of Mac sales during Apple's darkest days.
Just a thought, wouldn;t be the first time that a company has brought in someone before taking over. They have a lot of cash swirling around in their bank account. Adobe have lots of "creative" software. Plus Apple could effectively kill flash once and for all withouth any chance of it re-surfacing.
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