Microsoft has announced support for Adobe's PDFs just two weeks after the state of Massachusetts announced it will use only nonproprietary document formats. Is there a connection? (PDFzone)
Analysts, and even Adobe officials, expressed some surprise over the Monday announcement that Microsoft will support Adobe's PDF (Portable Document Format) after 12 years of all but denying that the file interchange standard existed.
The timing of Microsoft's action also raised some eyebrows.
Less than two weeks ago, the state of Massachusetts said it will use only nonproprietary document formats in state-affiliated offices effective Jan. 1, 2007.
On Monday, Microsoft said a forthcoming beta release of Office 12 will provide native support for PDF.
"I'd say it's a remarkable coincidence," Eugene Lee, vice president of marketing for Adobe's Intelligent Documents Business Unit, told Ziff Davis Internet. "But I doubt they wrote the code in 10 days.
"We think the timing is interesting, too, in view of all the noise the operating system group at Microsoft has been making regarding the XAML [Extensible Application Markup Language] document formats they have developed, along with the new XML-based Office formats the applications group has devised," Lee continued.
"To have invested all that time and effort into those [projects] and not realize what customers really want is very interesting."
According to Lee, Adobe is "pleased that Microsoft finally 'gets it', and we welcome them to the PDF party."
The timing of the announcement appears to be driven by the Massachusetts decision, as well as format movements coming later this month by other state agencies, analysts said.
Joe Wilcox, an analyst with Jupiter Research, who follows Microsoft, said he would be "shocked if the timing of this announcement is a coincidence.
Read the full story on PDFzone: Adobe, Analysts Welcome Microsoft's Move to PDF
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