Wsman2
26th of March 2008 (Wed), 23:36
Perhaps it's been discussed before, but this appeared in today's online version of the San Jose Mercury.
Adobe to unveil online version of Photoshop
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/26/2008 09:01:00 PM PDT
Adobe's Photoshop is the premier photo software offline. Now the company is hoping to make a splash online as well.
But the effort may be too little, too late.
Adobe plans to unveil today a slimmed-down, online version of its marquee image-editing software. Targeted at mainstream consumers, the free service, dubbed Photoshop Express, will allow users to upload, store, edit and share digital pictures all through a browser, without installing any software on their computer.
The company thinks the service will appeal in part to consumers who want to tweak their photos, but don't want to spend $100 or more on desktop software, such as the company's own Photoshop Elements, said Doug Mack, Adobe's vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions. The company also hopes to appeal to users of photo hosting sites such as Flickr that want to be able to do more sophisticated edits of their pictures than those sites allow.
"It's a solution for the everyday consumer," Mack said.
But Adobe may find such consumers hard to come by. Its new site joins an already crowded market of online photo services. They range from sites like Flickr that focus on storing and displaying photos to ones such as Snapfish and Kodak Gallery that offer a wide array of printing services.
Like Photoshop Express, thosesites are free and offer many of the same features. Unlike Adobe's new site, many of them already have millions of regular users. Adobe is, of course, counting on luring in customers with the well-known and respected Photoshop name. And one of the aims for the site is to persuade at least some users to buy Adobe's more sophisticated desktop software.
The company hopes to set Photoshop Express apart from rival services by offering a better range of features. In addition to editing and storing their photos, users can create eye-catching Web slide shows and e-mail pictures to friends. The company also has set up links to Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa, allowing users of those sites to automatically upload their pictures to Photoshop Express for a touch-up.
Adobe is launching Photoshop Express in a "beta," or test, mode. The company plans to refine the service in coming months, based on customer feedback.
Among the already planned additions are a link that will let Flickr users connect easily with their albums on that site and a paid premium service that will offer users additional storage space and editing features.
The free service offers two gigabytes of storage space. In contrast, many competitors offer unlimited storage.
Some analysts see the launch of the site as a defensive play for Adobe.
Long term, the competing online photo services represent a threat to Adobe's desktop software, said Ron Glaz, an analyst with market research firm IDC. As such services become more sophisticated, and as consumers are increasingly able to bypass their PCs by uploading photos directly to the Internet, consumers are likely to see less need for desktop photo software, he said.
"It's an action that they seemed to have had to take to stay competitive in today's market," Glaz said.
Adobe to unveil online version of Photoshop
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/26/2008 09:01:00 PM PDT
Adobe's Photoshop is the premier photo software offline. Now the company is hoping to make a splash online as well.
But the effort may be too little, too late.
Adobe plans to unveil today a slimmed-down, online version of its marquee image-editing software. Targeted at mainstream consumers, the free service, dubbed Photoshop Express, will allow users to upload, store, edit and share digital pictures all through a browser, without installing any software on their computer.
The company thinks the service will appeal in part to consumers who want to tweak their photos, but don't want to spend $100 or more on desktop software, such as the company's own Photoshop Elements, said Doug Mack, Adobe's vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions. The company also hopes to appeal to users of photo hosting sites such as Flickr that want to be able to do more sophisticated edits of their pictures than those sites allow.
"It's a solution for the everyday consumer," Mack said.
But Adobe may find such consumers hard to come by. Its new site joins an already crowded market of online photo services. They range from sites like Flickr that focus on storing and displaying photos to ones such as Snapfish and Kodak Gallery that offer a wide array of printing services.
Like Photoshop Express, thosesites are free and offer many of the same features. Unlike Adobe's new site, many of them already have millions of regular users. Adobe is, of course, counting on luring in customers with the well-known and respected Photoshop name. And one of the aims for the site is to persuade at least some users to buy Adobe's more sophisticated desktop software.
The company hopes to set Photoshop Express apart from rival services by offering a better range of features. In addition to editing and storing their photos, users can create eye-catching Web slide shows and e-mail pictures to friends. The company also has set up links to Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa, allowing users of those sites to automatically upload their pictures to Photoshop Express for a touch-up.
Adobe is launching Photoshop Express in a "beta," or test, mode. The company plans to refine the service in coming months, based on customer feedback.
Among the already planned additions are a link that will let Flickr users connect easily with their albums on that site and a paid premium service that will offer users additional storage space and editing features.
The free service offers two gigabytes of storage space. In contrast, many competitors offer unlimited storage.
Some analysts see the launch of the site as a defensive play for Adobe.
Long term, the competing online photo services represent a threat to Adobe's desktop software, said Ron Glaz, an analyst with market research firm IDC. As such services become more sophisticated, and as consumers are increasingly able to bypass their PCs by uploading photos directly to the Internet, consumers are likely to see less need for desktop photo software, he said.
"It's an action that they seemed to have had to take to stay competitive in today's market," Glaz said.