Adobe has cleverly positioned itself as THE place to go for an easy, transferable way to move information. This move was so successful that the 2007 version of Microsoft Office was to provide PDF transferability, meaning office documents could easily be turned into PDF files at the click of a mouse.
But no longer. Recently, talks broke down between the two companies. At this point, Adobe has been silent on the issue and Microsoft has suggested that it's because Adobe wanted Microsoft to charge its customers more for the Office program.
On the blogosphere, people are wondering whether Microsoft has an ulterior motive. It's possible, but the immediate impact on business is this:
- There will still be an extra step when transferring a Microsoft program into PDF file… and that's typically when errors in the document happen.
- Adobe — currently the champion in read-only files — may feel the backlash from bad press and lose its position as king of readable data… which could be problematic for business owners who sell digital download.
