Adobe, known for products such as Photoshop and Acrobat, has seen regional growth of over 200 per cent over the last two quarters.

Annually, the company sees growth in the regional at about 60 to 80 per cent, Adobe's regional manager for the Middle East and Africa Andrew Lindstrom told Gulf News.

The company has promised its shareholders double digit growth for the next five years.

Besides the Middle East and Africa, the company is also targeting Latin America, although the focus there is mainly on Brazil -India, China, and Eastern Europe, where the company is currently seeing its biggest gains.

"I would expect by this time next year to probably have doubled the staff in the region (Latin American)," he was quoted as saying

Three years ago, the company had no staff in the Middle East, and very little staffing in the Africa and Middle East region. Three people handled enterprise, channel, PR and marketing. Today the company has 14 employees in the region. Adobe is expecting to open a regional satellite office in the region.

Lindstrom said  99 per cent market share for Photoshop and a 94 per cent market share for Illustrator.

Despite predictions that software companies would be hardest hit in a US recession, Adobe seems to proving the analysts wrong.

"I look at this recession, and I go clearly there is a mismatch somewhere," he was quoted as saying. "Last quarter, I think Adobe grew [globally] 34 per cent in a recession, whether we say it's started or it's coming".