Adobe goes market specific

Adobe Systems Inc is to become the first foreign software company to adopt China specific prices for its products.

As part of its expansion into China, the world's leading provider of professional design software is to price its newly launched Simplified Chinese version products specially for the Chinese market.

"A lot of young designers are emerging in China - many more than in other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and we want to offer them world-class design tools at an affordable price," Craig Tegel, Adobe's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"It is the beginning of our 'China Expansion Plan'."

On Tuesday in Beijing the company launched its Simplified Chinese version of Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2).

CS2 has integrated new full-versions of Adobe's series of products.

Previously Adobe has only released stand-alone products in the Chinese language, including Photoshop and Illustrator.

Tegel said the pricing is a result of feedback from sales channels and Adobe's own research. The company says it spent two years engineering the new product.

All core features available in Adobe's other language versions are the same as in the Chinese version, he stressed.

"It is not a simplified version, as many may speculate."

Moreover, some functions tailored to local designers are added.

"We try to offer the right products and the right prices for China, and we hope our customers will embrace what we've done," said Tegel.

The China-specific pricing could be considered a response to the preponderance of pirated versions available in the region.

Software piracy is a prevailing phenomenon in the Asia-Pacific region, and Adobe will continue to educate its customers through seminars and also develop technologies to prevent illegal duplication of software, Tegel added.

But he declined to comment on the possible impact of the move on other foreign software companies' pricing in China, saying that pricing strategy may vary from one software company to another as targeted customers and products vary.

Microsoft has marketed simplified versions of Windows in some Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, at a lower price, but so far it has not done so in China.

Meanwhile, Adobe is further establishing its "eco-system" in China.

According to Tegel, the "eco-system" consists of Adobe's distributors, service providers, training centres and developers.

Adobe, which entered China in 1998, fully relies on local channel distributors to sell its products. The company is close to clinching a deal with Digital China, a domestic leading IT (information technology) products distributor, under which Digital China will become Adobe's major distributor in the country, said Tegel.

Currently Adobe has two distributors, China Hope and Grand Tech.

"We are glad that our retailers in China have grown rapidly, from about 50 to more than 200 today during the past year," he said.

Adobe is preparing to set up more authorized training and testing centres in China with the help of its service providers.

More than 100 Adobe authorized training centres all over the country turn out over 100,000 professional designers each year.

Source: China Daily