There have been blended reactions on Thursday morning when Adobe introduced it had acquired Figma.
Excited press releases extolling the advantages of the “collaboration” adopted the information. Dylan Discipline, founder and CEO of Figma, mentioned: “There’s a enormous alternative for us to speed up the expansion and innovation of the Figma platform with entry to Adobe’s know-how…”
The response from the design group has been rather less enthusiastic.
The issue for the design trade is that we’ve been right here earlier than. The acquisition of Macromedia adopted a interval through which Adobe tried to compete, didn’t replace its legacy code, misplaced the battle, and bought the victor. You solely want to take a look at the variety of former Macromedia merchandise in Adobe’s secure (zero) to see the place Figma’s heading.
Figma has grown quicker than any of its rivals within the final eight years. It’s, after all, simpler to develop if you begin at zero. However there’s no denying Figma is a well-managed enterprise and doubtless an excellent funding — if not definitely worth the $20bn that Adobe reportedly paid.
Figma’s know-how will give Adobe a leg-up within the collaborative design stakes, the place it’s clearly missing. And Adobe’s sources will iron out among the kinks in Figma, particularly round typography, which is, if we’re trustworthy, a bit hacky in locations.
Adobe will present an excellent residence (we hope) for the Figma workforce, who could have the chance for profession development in a a lot wider pool of improvement groups.
And, after all, Figma’s annual income will start to trickle into Adobe’s vault — though it could be a while earlier than it makes a dent in that $20bn gap.
However Adobe didn’t purchase Figma for its enterprise mannequin, collaborative know-how, workforce, or income stream. Adobe purchased Figma’s customers, all 4 million of them.
Adobe‘s method to design software program is upselling. It lures you in with free apps, and if you’re engaged, it integrates them with different components of its ecosystem till out of the blue, with out which means to, you’ve agreed to a Inventive Cloud subscription.
Adobe was dropping prospects to a competitor. And extra importantly, resulting from Figma’s free-use method for people, it was dropping younger prospects to a competitor. If it hadn’t purchased Figma, Adobe would have wanted to speculate closely in its personal merchandise whereas offering them to freelancers free of charge; that isn’t viable for a corporation with as many commitments as Adobe.
Sure, it’s completely correct to say that competitors drives innovation, and with fewer competing apps, there’s much less want for corporations like Adobe to construct high-quality, dependable merchandise. Nevertheless, it’s also true to say {that a} lack of competitors creates alternatives for brand spanking new apps.
Someplace on the market, in a dorm room, or a basement, or on a kitchen desk, somebody is engaged on Adobe’s subsequent massive acquisition. It’s in all probability an AR design app; we want a couple of extra of these.
For Figma, the following 12 months will likely be vivid as Adobe works to retain the shoppers it’s purchased. Inside 5 years, you’ll in all probability want an Adobe Fonts subscription and a Photoshop plugin to make use of Figma. In ten years, it will likely be saved in a code archive subsequent to Freehand.
Some designers will flip to Sketch; others will flip to Affinity; some will shrug and preserve utilizing Figma; others will shrug and preserve utilizing XD.
If an app is intrinsic to your design work, it’s in all probability time to change apps. Your abilities are transferable. I’ve switched apps many instances; some I cherished, some I simply wanted. I’ve by no means encountered an app that improved my work, though lots have improved my temper whereas working.
Figma took an incredible method and can proceed to be nice till it isn’t. Instruments come and go, Adobe’s acquisitions workforce, it seems, is everlasting.
Featured picture makes use of images by Afrika ufundi, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio, Anna Tarazevich, cottonbro, fauxels, Ketut Subiyanto, Mikhail Nilov, Moose Pictures, Pavel Danilyuk, Pavel Danilyuk, Polina Tankilevitch, Tima Miroshnichenko.
