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Adobe Versus Autodesk: Who Will Reign Champion of Digital Media Software?

Staff Writer
2/28/2020 | 5 min read
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Adobe Versus Autodesk: Who Will Reign Champion of Digital Media Software?

The landscape of the technology industry was significantly impacted in 1982 when Adobe and Autodesk made their debuts. Adobe’s main area of business is the development of software that enables printing, editing, illustrating, and publishing. Autodesk, on the other hand, focuses its business on design automation software such as AutoCAD, which is heavily used in the engineering industry.

Although the suite of offerings from both industries differs in some areas, they are competitors in the digital media market, and Adobe has made great strides in recent years. 

Applications of Adobe and Autodesk

One of Adobe’s most popular tools, Illustrator, was released in 1987 and was the first drawing tool is capable of drawing curved lines. Initial Illustrator sales resulted in Adobe just breaking even, and as a result the company launched Photoshop in 1988 as an add-on to bolster sales. Photoshop remains ever-popular today as one of the most used tools to edit photographs. 

In 1993, Adobe continued its success with the launch of the Acrobat Suite, software capable of creating, sharing, and viewing documents and coining the term portable document format, more commonly known as a PDF. There have been several iterations of the Acrobat suite since its launch; in the latest version, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, users can edit PDFs, create signatures, and export to other software. Acrobat is widely utilized in the engineering field to review and mark up changes to reports and drawings. 

Autodesk’s success since its 1982 launch and release of AutoCAD is attributed to the full range of products available that target different industries. Their portfolio offers over eighty products, the most popular of which are undoubtedly AutoCAD in both its 2D and 3D forms and Maya.  

Newest versions are of AutoCAD are still widely used and respected in the engineering sector. The software is generally used to create drawings, design elements such as highways, and run simulations and offers both hardware and online versions. AutoCAD 360, a web and mobile-based app, like Acrobat, promotes the sharing of documents, giving users the capability of printing drawings to PDF format. 

Maya, although one of Autodesk’s lesser-known offerings, is still widely respected in its industry as a 3D modeling software with animation and simulation capability. Maya was well-known for its use in the innovative animation of the film, Avatar, which took over three years and an estimated $300 million to produce. 

The War Between Adobe and Autodesk

The war between Adobe and Autodesk boils down to two main categories: price and third-party applications. Autodesk took a page out of Adobe’s book by introducing mandatory subscription payments for its customers. However, this transition was difficult for Autodesk, yielded different results, and caused profit losses for ten financial quarters up until the beginning of 2018.

Compared to Autodesk, Adobe’s subscription prices for their most popular products are much less. For example, Photoshop’s monthly subscription is currently $20.99 a month, versus AutoCAD’s monthly rate of $200.00. Adobe has also bested Autodesk is in the area of price hikes; between 2018 and 2020, the price of Photoshop only rose $1.00 while AutoCAD increased by $15.00. 

Third-party applications have also become a major part of the rivalry, with Adobe’s generally free offerings that usually aren’t critical to the efficiency of their software. However, add-ons for AutoCAD are necessary for some niche applications, such as the design of processing plants.

AutoCAD also has posed a difficult situation for its users with license expirations, after passing the expiration date the software stops working after a month, leaving the user in a bind. This issue has caused companies like Hexagon PPD to source and develop custom CAD software.

In 2019, Adobe boasted an annual revenue of $11.2 billion, while Autodesk only brought in $3.5 billion. Projections for Adobe’s growth continue to be positive, with its revenue expected to rise to $14 billion in 2020. Oppenheimer has also upgraded Adobe’s stock to outperform Autodesk, which has been downgraded.

Autodesk has had a difficult past five years of business in terms of profit losses and its subscription system and needs to assess its approach in the future. Factors like paying attention to expansion into new markets, acquisition of viable companies, and long-term vision for finances will ultimately determine the future of Autodesk. It remains to be seen if the company will revitalize its industry presence and pose more serious competition to Adobe.

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