February 6, 2006

Adobe will not release Apple Universal Binaries until the next major release of their products next year [PDF], and will not be re-releasing existing versions or providing free upgrades to existing customers.

Similarly, Microsoft will not release Apple Universal Binaries of Office until the next major release, also probably next year, and will not be re-releasing existing versions or providing free upgrades to existing customers.

I imagine Adobe and Microsoft would release free UB upgrades if it were cost-effective to do so. Forcing existing customers to re-purchase their software to run effectively on new hardware leaves an opening for smaller competitors. For many, this will be an opportunity to consider alternative products.

I hope that, at least, Adobe will use liberal upgrade pricing for the new versions. I (legitmately) own seven Adobe and Macromedia products in fairly recent versions, and I suspect at least a couple will not run to my taste under Rosetta. I don't recall MS ever releasing upgrade versions of Office with special pricing, but I rarely use Office anyway.