Exclusive:  New Acrobat 7 codename. Acrobat 7 predicted to ship by December 2004.

According to a report at ZDNet India News, industry analysts are predicting that Adobe will ship Acrobat 7, the next version of its lynchpin to the PDF document platform, before the end of 2004.

Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, said in a report published Thursday that Acrobat 7 will likely be released ahead of the early 2005 schedule currently predicted by other sources. Citing industry trends and early publicity material for books covering the new Acrobat, Muster believes Adobe's flagship application will be updated to version 7 in late December 2004 or early January 2005.

Among the upcoming books discussing the new Acrobat are Wiley Publishers' Acrobat "X" PDF Bible, slated for a February 2005 release. While no cover image is public, the description for Bible promises:  "...this critically acclaimed, authoritative reference has now been completely updated and enhanced to cover the powerful new release of Adobe Acrobat, expected in late 2004."

Similarly, Osborne, an imprint of McGraw Hill, is pre-selling How to Do Everything with Adobe Acrobat X, set for an 18 January, 2005 publication date.

Generally books covering Adobe products appear on shelves within four weeks of the products' release to market. Therefore, if Osborne is correct, Vegas, could be available as early as mid-December—with new Acrobat Family products following shortly thereafter.

Exclusive to the Design Weblog! The Design Weblog has learned from an anonymous source inside Adobe the codename for Acrobat 7. In keeping with the tradition of naming pre-release versions of Acrobat after cities, Acrobat 7 is codenamed "Vegas."

Exclusive to the Design Weblog! I'll go even one step further and predict that Acrobat 7 ships within the second week of December, or, at the very latest, the early part of the third week. Mark my words.