Adobe dominated third-party Mac news in 2008. The company , a new version of its Aperture competitor as well as , an image editing app for consumers.

But Adobe’s year was highlighted by the e—CS4, available in more combinations than you could shake a stick at, with Web, print and video-centric collections among the offerings. While Adobe’s slew of CS4 apps received mostly favorable reviews, it didn’t reach the commercial heights Adobe had hoped for; in December, the company said demand for CS4 was weaker than expected. As a result of the less-than-expected earnings, .

On the Web, Adobe also continued its planned world domination with Flash 10 and AIR, which lets you run Flash apps from the desktop rather than using a Web browser. also debuted; that’s Adobe Web-based alternative to Google Picasa; it helps digital photographers organize and show pictures online, plus offers some lightweight editing capabilities.

Quark wasn’t content to let Adobe run unimpeded with the newly released InDesign CS4. debuted mid-year, another overhaul of Quark’s flagship page layout software. The new release features a new interface, built-in Flash authoring, loads of new tools and a bevy of related workflow products like Quark Publishing System 8.

Microsoft kicked off the year unveiling its anticipated—and delayed— of productivity apps for the Mac. Yet, the company raised the ire of many business users by omitting Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) from its Office 2008 suite, a particularly important component used especially by Excel spreadsheet jocks. At first Microsoft hoped to head off problems by offering users VBA-to-AppleScript workarounds, but within a few months Microsoft admitted the error of its ways and , whenever that might be. (More than three years elapsed between the Office 204 and Office 2008 updates.) Toward the end of the year, —Eric Wilfrid, a 14-year employee of Microsoft who has been with the MacBU since its formation a dozen years ago.