Adobe to resurrect Premier for the Mac

"Film, video and web professionals currently using Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on the Mac will soon be able to harness the power of completely new Macintosh releases of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD and Adobe Soundbooth," the company said in a statement to the media, referring to the upcoming milestone revision to Production Studio.

Adobe added it will offer the first public demonstration of the new software bundle during the Macworld 2007 Conference and Exhibition at The Moscone Center in San Francisco next week.

The San Jose, Calif.-based software developer discontinued support for Premier on the Mac back in 2003, citing Apple's increased efforts in the market segment with its own line of digital video editing applications like Final Cut Pro.

"Our customers wanted all the components in Adobe Production Studio to be available on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "We listened and believe that an innovative new cross-platform video suite, anchored by powerhouse releases of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, will really shake up the industry."

The new version of Adobe Production Studio will include Adobe After Effects for compositing, effects and animation; Adobe Premiere Pro for non-linear editing; Adobe Encore DVD for DVD authoring; Adobe Photoshop; Adobe Illustrator; as well as the time-saving workflow enhancements offered by Adobe Dynamic Link.

Adobe also said that Soundbooth will take the place of Adobe Audition in the new version of Adobe Production Studio, and that Audition will continue to be developed for audio professionals as a stand-alone product for Windows.

Adobe Production Studio for Macintosh will be available for purchase in mid-2007 as a Universal Binary for Intel-based Macs, the company said.