Adobe recently announced Version 9 of its Acrobat line of desktop software and of its free Adobe Reader. This new release comes at a time of increasing market pressure on makers of desktop productivity software to prove clear value in upgrading. Organizations are evaluating upgrades to desktop productivity software with increasing scrutiny and this new release follows adoption of Portable Document Format (PDF) as an ISO standard (ISO/DIS 32000), which removed any remaining controls Adobe has over PDF itself.
The most significant manner in which Adobe has addressed these market pressures against automatic Acrobat 9 upgrades is by extending advanced document collaboration via live Web conferencing to Acrobat and the free Adobe. These additions make a compelling argument for many organizations to upgrade to Adobe Reader 9 and Adobe Acrobat 9, despite the desire to lock down desktop configurations for as long as possible.