Adobe has announced plans to lay off 600 employees.

The company also confirmed that fourth quarter revenue would total between $912 million and $915 million, instead of the targeted $925 million to $955 million.

Adobe attributed the fall in revenue to weaker-than-expected demand for its recently released Creative Suite 4.

"The global economic crisis significantly impacted our revenue during the fourth quarter," said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer. "We have taken action to reduce our operating costs and fine-tune the focus of our resources on key strategic priorities."

The restructuring program should result in charges totaling approximately $44 million to $50 million, of which $28 million to $30 million will be recorded during the fourth quarter of 2008. Adobe also issued a 2009 Q1 revenue projection of $800 million to $850 million.

Although the company has reported disappointing Q4 results, Adobe's Flash platform continues to increase in popularity. According to Narayen, Flash player software is installed on 98 per cent of Internet-connected desktops and a growing number of mobile devices. Indeed, Nokia technology marketing manager Stephen Ellis told IT Examiner that the mobile phone company has included Flash Lite in its device range since 2005. In addition, Flash is currently integrated with the series 40 platform and popular S60 webkit-based browser.

"We have shipped huge volumes of Flash enabled phones—both Series 40 feature phones and S60 smartphones—that means around 150 million devices in 2008 alone. Nokia provides easy routes for packaging and distributing Flash 'stand alone' applications," said Ellis.

Ellis also explained that Flash added value to the mobile market owing to its quick development time, an established developer base and optimal distribution options.

"Think of Flash on mobile as being the same as on the desktop. It is primarily good for eye candy, promotions or advertisements, rich interfaces and casual games. Enterprise and business applications are also possible; in fact most things are possible. Nokia also extend what is possible on handsets, for example, S60 Platform Services (that) open up GPS location, calendars, contact and more, to web and Flash developers," added Ellis.  X

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