Adobe profits rocket

Adobe has seen a record surge in profits thanks to the upgrade to Acrobat in the second half of 2006. But it has yet to reap the benefits from the launch of Creative Suite 3 in March this year.

In its second-quarter results released on Thursday, Adobe's profits jumped 24 percent while revenue rose by 17 percent, compared with the same quarter last year. The jump in profits, from $123m (£62m) to $152m (£77m), was a record, the company said.

The results follow sustained criticism of Adobe by many UK customers, who have been incensed by the company's pricing of CS3.

Adobe's most comprehensive package, the CS3 Master Collection, costs $2,499 in the US, which means it should be available in the UK for less than £1,300 at current exchange rates. But Adobe prices the Master Collection at £2,313.58 in the UK — a premium of over £1,000.

Craig Tegel, Adobe's managing director for Northern Europe, tried to justify the premium in an interview earlier this month with ZDNet.co.uk. "The difference between the US and here is that we have multiple languages, multiple countries and we don't have the same economies of scale," he said. "They [US citizens] have one version of the product that is being distributed to everybody. In Europe we have eight languages."

Adobe's chief executive Bruce Chizen said on Thursday the company's second-quarter performance was "dynamite". "What's not to like?" he asked, in an article published by The Associated Press. "Customers seem to like what we're doing."