The father of the PDF document, Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), is starting to push further into the web-based document creation business. That strategy puts it squarely in the cross-hairs of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and its excellent Google Docs product, as well as software giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), which is set to release a major online component with Office 2010.
Adobe indicated that a fee-based version its new online initiatives would allow businesses to covert all kinds of documents to the de-facto PDF standard, as well as hold online meetings via Acrobat.com.
Not to burst Adobe's bubble, both of those can easily be accomplished with free tools already, so why would businesses pay for this? Beats me. Google Docs is already used freely by all kinds of businesses, and OpenOffice is a productivity suite with PDF functionality built-in.
Adobe's announcement is valiant, but Google's online tools and online conferencing like DimDim already have a slew of users (for free in most cases). How does Adobe plan to convince any business customers that its product is 1) not outdated already and 2) worth paying for in a recession? We'll see, but this sounds like good PR for Adobe, if not much else.
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