On/off affair
The launch of the new programs and bundles has been an on/off affair that's rumbled along for many months. Some of the media received detailed briefings as long ago as July but the story was embargoed – under pain of excommunication - until the second week of September.
But, as that deadline approached, Adobe let it be known that there were unavoidable delays – without explaining what they were – and told everyone they had to sit on their hands. Grrrr!
Adobe has still not given any detailed explanation for the delay but our thinking is that there were three factors, the most significant being complications arising from the company's takeover of Macromedia.
A surfeit of bugs, we reckon, also had an effect, as did the need to hang fire while technical details were sorted out about the forthcoming introduction of high-definition optical disc formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. See our CES coverage for more about the status of hi-def DVD.
Indeed, back in the autumn, we'd thought that the imminent arrival of high-def DVD had to be the prime reason for the delay. Now, though, the fact that Encore DVD 2.0 is here and won't initially have support for either format suggests either that hi-def DVD wasn't the reason or that Adobe's given up waiting.
Our expectation, though, is that the ability to write to Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD will follow soon after burners in those formats go on sale. But, how soon after, we wouldn't like to say, nor whether hi-def compatibility will be free.
Anyway, three months passed and then, in the week before Christmas, Adobe sent out smoke signals suggesting things were starting to move forward again. And, so it is that, a further month on, we bring you this preview.
