Once I realized that I hadn't accidentally preannounced Acrobat 8, I e-mailed one of my biggest rivals—who shall here remain nameless—saying, "Hey, brother, where's the Acrobat 8 story on your site?" It wasn't there.

Soon after that, Scoble posted to his blog wondering in general, "Where's all the Acrobat 8 coverage?"

Usually, on the day Adobe announces the next Acrobat, there's a couple hundred Google News hits, like there are today (a chunk of them, like Marc Orchant's blog, reacting to Scoble). What gives?

The easy conclusion is that Acrobat's dead, or at least terminally ill. The proverbial tree fell in the woods and no one heard it. In my opinion, that's not the case. It's a lot more complicated than that.

Truckload of tech
First, Acrobat's so huge now, featurewise. It doesn't matter what Adobe adds to Acrobat anymore; its user base is so diverse there are few upgrades to the application that evoke universal applause in all Acrobat users like, say, the visceral "Oh, yeah!" iPod users get when they see new TV commercials.

Acrobat appeals to so many people that when Adobe makes an exciting change—such as allowing Reader users to save form-field information on their hard drives—most people don't care, because they don't design forms. Or if Adobe beefs up PDF/X or PDF/A or PDF/E support. People who need those features really need them, but most users neither know nor care about esoteric document standards.

Another related factor: People are still trying to figure out Acrobat 7. It's software that only a few people need the most current version. Most people can afford to wait up to a year to upgrade because the last version does everything they want already.

The big buyers—IT people making decisions on behalf of a whole enterprise—might buy a few copies of the new version for power users. Just to see what breaks when PDFs made in Acrobat 8 start coursing through their data ecosystems. The rank and file will get their upgrades when these early adopters show the coast is clear.

Limited exposure
Chances are, after the public gets its collective mitts on the Acrobat 8 Pro demo downloads in November—and Reader, typically released on the same day—more blogosphere analysis will happen.

But as of now, no one's really seen Acrobat 8. Only beta testers, developers and a few journalists are in the loop. Adobe's stranglehold on prerelease information prevents excitement from building.

Compare this to Microsoft, which previews new versions of major software so many months in advance that the world is fairly frothing at the mouth when the release day finally comes. Adobe's so tight with its public information that there's no froth.

On top of that, the trade show atmosphere is stifling. The realities of post-9/11 travel—the worries and inconvenience—have sunk the big publishing shows where Adobe once interacted with an adoring PDF public and let slip some mysterious screen shots of the next Acrobat.

While Adobe still avails the Acrobat team at trade shows and gets into deep, satisfying technical detail for all who attend, low attendance limits the exposure. For what it's worth, Adobe's planning to be at TechEd Solutions' Acrobat and PDF Central Conference in Omaha, Nov. 6-9; the Acrobat and PDF Conference in Washington Dec. 7-8; and the Acrobat Conference in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Oct. 17-18.

Spin doctors keeping it in-house?
For those who hunger for more Acrobat 8 knowledge, you'll have to go to Adobe itself. There's always Adobe podcasts and e-seminars—or if you live in a large city, check out the Acrobat Road Show schedule. Perhaps the new Adobe-controlled MAX (formerly Macromedia MAX) user show next month in Vegas will become the new cool place to see what the world makes of Acrobat 8.

The jaded journalist in me wonders if this is all by design: Maybe Adobe's controlling spin by pouring resources into Acrobat User Groups, the Road Show marketing presentations and the MAX conference. After all, who wants to unfurl the big announcement and make yourself vulnerable to merciless blogger criticism outside the Adobe-sphere when you can control the content in your own official corporate online community?

The realist in me, though, says probably not. My guess is that they're generating all these events because no one else can, or will.

Follow (ugh) Bill Gates' example
I am always loath to type the words "do what Microsoft does." Yet in this one instance, maybe Adobe should take the Microsoft approach and let everyone who wants early access to prerelease software get it.

That would generate buzz, give the bloggers something to murmur about and maybe even unearth some of those inevitable problems that—as it stands today—require a red-faced Adobe to hurriedly issue updater patches. People are pretty forgiving when they're looking at not-ready-for-prime-time prerelease versions.

Alternately, Adobe could just keep doing it the way they have all along. But if they do, and the Acrobat 9 release makes a big splash only at PDFzone.com and at the Adobe Acrobat User Groups site, don't blame me.

Don Fluckinger is a freelance writer based in Nashua, N.H., who has covered Acrobat and PDF technologies for PDFzone since 2000.

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