I personally don't care about an Adobe audio application. No need for it. I also don't see those apps missing from the Mac platform as a problem (agreeing with Kendall). It wouldn't make sense for Adobe to compete with the good and free alternatives.
Well, anybody who uses FCP or DVDSP regularly cares about an audio application, and having one bundled is a big addition. Apple has bundled a primitive one with FCP4, so they obviously see the need for it. Just because you see no need for it, doesn't mean that the platform doesn't need it.
Nobody is arguing that Adobe should make products that compete with free offerings from Apple...
But if you can't see what Adobe is up to, then you are missing the big picture.
Adobe and Apple are partners in the graphic design business (Photoshop, Illustrator), Desktop Publishing (InDesign), and Web Design (GoLive). But Adobe has taken an adversarial posture towards Apple in the audio/video content creation market. Stopping Mac production of Premiere was the first volley. The second will be Encore, which looks quite sophisticated, even when compared with DVDSP2. Due to abysmal performance since v. 5.5, Adobe After Effects Mac sales have fallen to under 15%. There is serious talk that this might become a PC only app too, since it competes with FCP, and Adobe is out to recapture this market segment at all costs.
Couple this with the state of the current apps under OS X on the Mac... With the exception of GoLive, it's not pretty. Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Livemotion, InDesign - these apps are all faster under the PC. Is Adobe spending more time optimizing for Wintel - or is this due to working with a new OS and Apple's mhz problems?
But I certainly don't fear that Adobe would leave the Macintosh platform for good. Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign just sell too good on the Mac.
Define "too good". As of Q1 2003, Mac sales (on whole, for all apps) are down to around 27% for Adobe. At one time this was over 60%. These revenues keep declining, and at this rate, could be in the single digits in under 5 years. Adobe knows this, and it's reflected in their recent actions. Those promotions of Dells on their website are a harbinger of things to come.
I'm not afraid of Adobe leaving the Mac platform any time soon, but if you look objectively at the data (graph it out if it helps you), the line on the graph is going south, and coupled with recent behavior, it doesn't look all that peachy for the future (3-5 years)...