Quark versus Adobe as publisher to the iPad

The iPad is doing for publishing what the iPod did for music players -- bringing digital technology to the masses -- and Quark has a plan to take the fight to Adobe once again as both struggle for the future of publishing as we head to the clouds.

While the company won't say anything directly, it is clear that Quark believes Adobe's clear preference that its customers use its very own Flash platform for digital content and enhanced solutions for tablets and other devices is in fact a big, big chance for Quark to regain lost ground.

After all, Steve Jobs says Flash is buggy and unfit for purpose. Even though Adobe doesn't agree.

Inside publishing 2.0

I spoke with Quark's European PR, Valentina Moressa, this morning in an attempt to get some insight into the company's plans.

She puts it like this, "Up until now, producing iPad applications for eMagazines has been a one-on-one very costly effort."

While she wouldn't refer to Flash specifically, she did drop hints, adding,

"With Quark, Blio and Baker and Taylor it will be easier for publishers to output to all main mobile devices in  a much more cost-effective way, therefore leaving the consumer with more choice possibly at a lower price."

The news follows Quark's announcement this morning of a new alliance with K-NFB Reading Technology, creator of the Blio e-reader application; and Baker & Taylor, the world's largest distributor of physical and digital media products.  The three companies are collaborating to offer content creators the first complete solution for Digital Publishing 2.0.

Quark defines Digital Publishing 2.0 as design-rich, interactive content that can be delivered to the mass market through all leading digital devices.

The plan is to produce magazines for multiple devices, including the iPad. These rich media efforts will include video and audio clips, interactive Web pages, integration with social media, note-taking, exporting capabilities, and more.

A complete solution -- soon

Quark's strategy is to extend QuarkXPress and its built-in interactive features to enable publishers to easily add things like slide shows, embedded video and other interactive elements to make their publications sing.

The company road map (above) posits new solutions to create rich interactive content for tablets and smartphones (and let's be honest here and say the focus is likely to be on iPhones and iPads) by Fall 2010.

2011 will see the introduction of more powerful solutions, the company says.

For Quark this really is a no-brainer. Since the company adopted a dynamic publishing strategy as a reaction to Creative Suite it has focused on XML and automation.

It already has a host of tools designed to make publishing tasks simpler, while publishers are increasingly adopting XML-based solutions.

This XML-first strategy means Quark now feels "way ahead" of Adobe, observed Moresa.

Expect more iNews

While the company declined to name names, it will, with the company PR promising,

"Quark customers already are publishing to the iPhone and iPad. They use QuarkXPress and Quark Publishing System and have built custom applications to deliver their print titles in rich, interactive content to the iPhone and iPad. I can't name these customers today, but in the coming weeks and months we will make announcements about their digital publishing applications."

The company will in future release a ready-made toolkit for building branded applications for smartphones, tablets, and computers so publishers can bypass the technology issues of getting not just to the iPad and iPhone but to any device – letting them focus on their content.

But what of Flash?

Flash is a solution, not the solution

Flash can come along for the ride -- at least so far as Quark's concerned, Moressa explains.

"Quark doesn't ask its customers to take sides in the platform wars. We don't have a stake in the battle between Flash, Silverlight and HTML 5, and we're not closely tied to any particular format -- we will support them all."

But we all know the direction it really is going, and the stars don't favor Flash.

"The market will dictate how quickly content creators and publishers move to HTML 5, but we are committed to supporting the formats necessary to help our customers publish their enhanced content most effectively," Moressa said.

These are critical moves from an old-timer in desktop publishing to regain lost marketshare.

Adobe's focus on Flash has made it blind to the need to change its strategy, in a very similar way to how Apple CEO Steve Jobs' focus on Microsoft as the enemy left him open to Google's Android broadside.

Disruption, misrule, all to play for

All these players are reading the same surveys I sift through, for example this morning's revelation by Forrester Research that tablets -- led by Apple's sales-record-creating iPad -- will account for 23 percent of the entire PC market -- including desktops, laptops, netbooks and tablets -- by 2014.

The iPad is killing the netbook market.

Stats like these mean the future of the iPad will inevitably include an iPad Pro. We're looking at a moment of disruptive technology which can give new opportunities for old foes, such as Adobe and Quark, and will likely give rise to new technology solutions from players we've not met yet.

After all -- even content in the cloud will be printed sometimes. Even printed content will be visible on your iPhone, and in future you will read your morning paper on your TV, or your iPad or Samsung tablet, or even on that newspaper I mentioned just then.

How do you think all of this will play out?