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 Area, founder and CEO of Figma, mentioned: “There’s a big 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 during which Adobe tried to compete, did not replace its legacy code, misplaced the battle, and bought the victor. You solely want to have a look at the variety of former Macromedia merchandise in Adobe’s steady (zero) to see the place Figma’s heading.
Figma has grown sooner than any of its rivals within the final eight years. It’s, after all, simpler to develop once you begin at zero. However there’s no denying Figma is a well-managed enterprise and possibly a great 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 assets will iron out a number of the kinks in Figma, particularly round typography, which is, if we’re trustworthy, a bit hacky in locations.
Adobe will present a great residence (we hope) for the Figma crew, who can have the chance for profession development in a a lot wider pool of growth groups.
And, after all, Figma’s annual income will start to trickle into Adobe’s vault — though it might 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, crew, or income stream. Adobe purchased Figma’s customers, all 4 million of them.
Adobe‘s strategy to design software program is upselling. It lures you in with free apps, and once you’re engaged, it integrates them with different components of its ecosystem till all of a sudden, with out which means to, you’ve agreed to a Inventive Cloud subscription.
Adobe was shedding clients to a competitor. And extra importantly, as a consequence of Figma’s free-use strategy for people, it was shedding younger clients 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 without cost; that isn’t viable for an organization with as many commitments as Adobe.
Sure, it’s totally correct to say that competitors drives innovation, and with fewer competing apps, there’s much less want for firms like Adobe to construct high-quality, dependable merchandise. Nevertheless, it’s also true to say {that a} lack of competitors creates alternatives for brand 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 most likely an AR design app; we want just a few extra of these.
For Figma, the following 12 months shall be shiny as Adobe works to retain the purchasers it’s purchased. Inside 5 years, you’ll most likely want an Adobe Fonts subscription and a Photoshop plugin to make use of Figma. In ten years, it is going to 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 most likely time to change apps. Your expertise are transferable. I’ve switched apps many occasions; 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 amazing strategy and can proceed to be nice till it isn’t. Instruments come and go, Adobe’s acquisitions crew, 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 Images, Pavel Danilyuk, Pavel Danilyuk, Polina Tankilevitch, Tima Miroshnichenko.
