Adobe plans to release Audition for Mac. Why?

According to DV Magazine, Adobe plans to start beta testing a version of Audition for Mac OSX in Winter 2010. Audition is a multichannel audio editing application that has only been available for Microsoft Windows since Adobe acquired Syntrillium and Cool Edit Pro (the previous name of Audition) in 2003. The last major version of Audition, 3.0, was released in 2007.

I've used Cool Edit Pro and Audition since the late 1990s, primarily for radio production, and it's a very good package, but most Audition users have long since given up on Adobe and have moved to other software, such as Avid's Pro Tools. Audition was never part of Creative Suite (Soundbooth, sound editing software optimized for video post-production, was derived from Audition and is part of Creative Suite) and has been seen as an "orphan" product for years. At one time, Audition was priced at around $250 when the cheapest version of Pro Tools was close to $1,000 and required Digidesign hardware. Now, you can buy the M-Powered version of Pro Tools that works with any audio hardware for $250, while Audition 3 sells for $329 at Amazon.

So, why is Adobe bothering to port Audition to the Mac? It makes no sense. Perhaps they want to remain a thorn in Apple's side--Apple sells Logic Studio, a far more powerful audio editing application, for $499. Perhaps they've got some developers sitting around with time on their hands. But, the smartest thing they could do is kill Audition once and for all.