With the economy crimping software demand from advertising customers, the slackened sales of its key creative products led to a 41 percent drop in the fiscal second- quarter profit of the San Jose, California-based software maker Adobe Systems Inc.

In a statement, the Photoshop and Acrobat maker said that its net income plunged to $126.1 million, or 24 cents per share, from the year-before figures of $214.9 million, or
40 cents per share. Excluding costs, its profit dropped to 35 cents - falling in line with the estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Abode's revenue for the quarter fell 21 percent to $704.7 million; and its creative-software sales plunged 22 percent to $411.7 million.

While Abode Systems said that the sales of its creative tools were still being crimped by the recession, some of the executives of the company expressed the opinion that the North American business appeared to have "bottomed out."

With companies in Europe shutting down for vacation in August, this period is characteristically the 'slowest' sales period for Abode during the whole year. Addressing analysts in a conference call, Abode's Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett said that last quarter too, European sales fell short of Adobe's expectations, while US revenue reflected signs of leveling off.

Garrett said: "The stability we saw in North America hasn't factored into Europe's results yet."