Love my Apple, really I do. But the truth about any computer is that it is only a tool for doing a job; if the tool stops being useful then I will be forced to buy a new one.

No, this isn’t about back-dating stock options or crankiness that some pet aspect of OS 7 didn’t make the cut in OS X’s interface. This is a response to an article that posits that graphic designers--probably something like half of which work on Apple computers--are more loyal to Apple than they are to the tools that they use in their trade. Here’s the spot that grabbed my attention:

Apple customers are remarkably loyal to Apple and if Mr. Jobs feels forced into going ‘head on’ with Adobe over Photoshop releasing an Apple equivalent then the market for Photoshop would likely collapse in a few months. Apple already demonstrated that the technology built into new Macs with Quartz Extreme and Core image would make developing a similar product to Photoshop trivial for Apple.

What Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen needs to understand is that although in the past Apple was very reliant on Adobe for applications, today Apple is a very different beast. With the rewards it has reaped from its entry into the media software application business Apple is on a roll. Furthermore, Apple’s new found confidence will not stop it from entering traditional ‘no go areas’.

Any loss in the media market will be for Adobe, not Apple.

First, building an application with the tools, the plug-in structure, the stability, and the maturity of something like Photoshop isn’t “trivial.” It’s a big task with a lot of code and a lot of space for screwing up. Even more importantly, Apple doesn’t always get everything right and Steve Jobs doesn’t walk on water--he just manages to paddle a little faster than most. The same warning that applies to all new applications applies to Apple stuff: waiting for version two is usually good practice. Let the bleeding edgers deal with the bugs and crashes.

Second, I have a lot of time and energy invested in mastering the tools of my trade. I’m good with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign--and unless there is a really compelling reason to switch to a new application, I won’t be making changes any time soon. I like Adobe products (although the prices hurt).

How much do I like Adobe? Enough that the cost of software on my computer towers over the cost of the computer itself. I’m a very loyal Apple user but only to the extent that their computers continue to be tools that help me do my job; once utility vanishes so will my loyalty.

This is an academic conversation, though. Adobe will release Universal binaries next year so that the Intel-based Mac boxes will be even better than their PPC counterparts and Apple’s Aperture doesn’t really compete with Photoshop--and I doubt that it ever will.

For that matter, if Adobe ever did completely abandon the Apple market, multi-OS fast user switching would solve that problem right away.

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