Quark pulls out of UK

Hmmm...

I don't work in the design industry, but I became an amateur user of a few illustration/DTP products when writing my PhD thesis and therefore learned a little bit about the background. It seems to me Quark is in serious trouble if they go down this road as they are making a switch to Adobe InDesign 2.0 much more enticing to professionals. Quark have already annoyed Mac users by their slow release of updates and the lack of an OS X native version of QuarkXpress.

At this stage, I can't really see the logic in what they are doing unless they have financial trouble.
 
Considering one of the key executives at Quark quit to start his own business of migrating from Quark to inDesign, it would seem fairly certain that we may never see Quark on X or once we get an X version it will be the last. I prefer the first option of never seeing Quark on X. Once we get an X version people will never switch, that is until a system upgrade comes along that renders Quark X unusable. Wheras, never geting an X version when people buy a new mac and cannot run OS9, this will force people to make the switch.
 
Originally posted by bbloke
It seems to me Quark is in serious trouble if they go down this road as they are making a switch to Adobe InDesign 2.0 much more enticing to professionals.
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You're telling me...

At the office we have a shrink-wrapped copy of Quark Express and my manager refused to install it on her system and forbid me from installing it on mine (not a problem cuz I prefer InDesign better) - and we're on Windows! So we don't even have the compatibility issue!

So for all our documentation 'n stuff we're using Adobe (InDesign, Photoshop) or MS Word...

It seems to me that Quark has lost the respect of more than just the Mac users!

I don't see them staying in business very much longer really.
 
Originally posted by Tormente
It seems to me that Quark has lost the respect of more than just the Mac users!

I don't see them staying in business very much longer really.
Click to expand...

Wow, this sounds so strange to hear! Quark seemed to have such a stranglehold on the publishing market. To me, it's rather like saying Microsoft were about to go out of business...

tk4two1, interesting idea that loss of Quark's monopoly might lead to wider uptake of OS X. I hadn't thougt of that and it does make sense, as many in the industry quote the lack of an OS X native version of QuarkXpress as something seriously holding them back from making the switch.

I had only ever played with demos of QuarkXPress and watched pros use the real thing, but I always preferred PageMaker for my own needs, though I know it is far less widely used. I would be quite interested to see if InDesign can take over, to be honest. Tormente, do you have any opinions/useful information about InDesign? I'm toying with the idea of getting it but only if there is some sort of discount that I am eligible for; I couldn't afford it otherwise!
 
Hmmm, now MacUser (UK) is carrying the following story:



"Tuesday 22nd October 2002


Quark commits to UK and Mac


Quark has strongly denied a report that it is pulling out of the UK and does not like the Mac platform.
Glen Turpin, Quark's communications manager, said, 'I don't think I've ever seen a more inaccurate story in my whole life.'

The report alleged that the company is 'firing all but two of its UK staff'. In fact, said Turpin, only two employees were 'let go'.

'Clearly, they're disgruntled,' he said. 'The rest is fabrication.'

The report also claimed that Quark CEO Fred Ebrahimi 'does not like the Mac platform' and implied that this is why it is pulling out of the UK, 'largely a Mac market'.

Turpin insists that, 'Quark is a strong supporter of Mac OS. We started out on Mac OS.'

This is not the first time that Quark's commitment to the Mac has been questioned. The company is still to announce a release date for an OS X version of its market-leading DTP application QuarkXPress. Turpin explained that, 'it's still being tested to assure that it meets the level of quality our customers expect and demand from our software. We have more that four million customer workflows to consider with this release, and we refuse to compromise on our commitment to quality.' "


:confused:


This is getting very curious, especially after Tigger's comments about Quark in Germany.
 
Originally posted by bbloke
Wow, this sounds so strange to hear! Quark seemed to have such a stranglehold on the publishing market. To me, it's rather like saying Microsoft were about to go out of business...
Click to expand...

That's just my opinion of course,
but I honestly don't see or have heard of Quark being used much anymore...


Tormente, do you have any opinions/useful information about InDesign? I'm toying with the idea of getting it but only if there is some sort of discount that I am eligible for; I couldn't afford it otherwise!
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I really enjoy using InDesign and has been pretty good. It was odd for me at first since I was used to Quark since it works a bit differently.

But in all honestly I can't really say that one is better than the other. They seem pretty much the same to me really.

The reason why I now use InDesign is because it came in one of the Adobe Collections I purchased so I got to play with it, then Quark refusing to release a patch or version for OSX just killed it completely for me.

Now as far as I am concerned, Quark has done too little too late and are out of the picture for me.

Plus, it's cool being able to drop Photoshop PSD Documents right into InDesign and even get to do some effects with them that you can't really do with other graphic formats! :D
 
I sometimes write long technical reports. Here there is only one solution: Adobe FrameMaker. This product is not well known, but very efficient and stable.
 
Ah yes, I've heard of FrameMaker but have not tried using it. It has always been a bit out of my price range and, these days, I'm put off by the fact that it is not OS X native. I have heard good things about it for long documents though and it's good to know it's stable; stability was not always PageMaker's strong point!

Am I right in thinking InDesign has the long document features (indexing, table of contents, book creation from separate files) that PageMaker 6.52 had?
 
I don't think Quark is going out of business. Version 5 was very disappointing, they know it, and they know version 6 is their last chance. I think version 6 won't just be a Carbon Quark 5: I think it'll be a new Quark, keeping the best of the old one, and implemented with some of the best OSX features designers need today.
Also, ID2 won't get over Quark for a very simple reason: most of the features ID2 has over Quark are not PostScript supported. Try to get an ID2 document with a table inside a Harlequin RIP and be fixed.

A very good forum will give you, in its General DTP Talk section, a good discussion: http://www.desktoppublishing.com.
Link is
http://www.desktoppublishing.com/bo...0&Forum_Title=General+QuarkXPress+Discussions
 
Thanks for the input, toast.

I realize Quark is certainly far from dead, but it just surprised me to hear anyone even mention the possibility, which is why I compared it to Microsoft's position. I don't work in the industry, but I had the impression Quark had what seemed to be an unbreakable hold on the DTP market!

As with Microsoft, though, I do wonder just how long people are prepared to put up with things before they switch to something else. Perhaps InDesign is not yet mature enough to take over, judging by what you say, and this contributes to maintaining the status quo.

It's also very strange that one reputable Mac magazine publishes such a story and then the rival shoots it down the next day. It makes me wonder where the first story came from...
 
Originally posted by bbloke
I realize Quark is certainly far from dead (…) Perhaps InDesign is not yet mature enough to take over, judging by what you say, and this contributes to maintaining the status quo.
Click to expand...

That's the point.
If InDesign progresses at same speed while Quark continues to stagnate, InDesign 3 or 4 may be the industry standard in 5/6 years, maybe a bit more.

But I doubt Quark will stagnate very long: Quark 6 is coming beginning of next year, I'm waiting…
 
well print houses might not be making the jump yet, but independant designers sure are, so its making a bigger dent then some would like to admit

im with toast, its gonna be like indesign 4 or so before it becomes standard unfortunately... IF it happens
 
MacWorld UK has now posted another article which seems to be attacking Quark... this magazine really seems to be going for Quark at the moment!


http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=5462

"In a Macworld Online readers poll, 91 per cent of respondees said they are either considering an alternative to QuarkXPress or have already switched.

Asked if they would consider moving from QuarkXPress to InDesign, 51 per cent said they were sick of waiting for the Mac OS X version of XPress, while 40 per cent revealed they had already switched. 1,268 people were polled."


Economically speaking: ' One reader said: "InDesign is a superior package and costs half as much. If Quark used the same promotional offers in Europe as in the US, they would shift more XPress copies.” '

(Though I accept there are additional costs here and one cannot just look at the price of buying the new software alone... )

But I think the following is a significant snippet from that article: ' On reader feared that InDesign is an unknown quantity. "The prospect of the design community porting to InDesign sends a shiver down my spine. Quark isn't perfect, but we all understand it and most issues are known." '
 
I worked with Quark for years at a major publishing house in Germany and met with marketing and product management personell from Quark over the years. Their biggest challenge - even before InDesign came out - was to upgrade people to a new version of their own Software let alone to compete against third party products.

Next time you send something to be printed by a professional printer, ask them which version of Quark they support - I guarantee many of them will still prefer to receive filesin Quark 3.3 format. Only few switched to 4.0 because every upgrade introduced new inconsistencies in how Post Script was formatted, etc.

I don't deal with print much anymore these days but have used InDesign for a few projects. It's leaps and bounds better than Quark, integrates well into OSX and Photoshop and is overall a better thought out program. Adobe also knows a bit about customer support and about the release of updates. Quark never listened to their customers because frankly - they didn't have to.

G
 
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