Adobe will be following a trend that has been seen across the internet by releasing a free online version of its popular Photoshop image-editing software. The online version will be a stripped-down edition of the program that has rapidly become an industry standard for graphics professionals.
The trend to online versioning is part of a larger effort by companies to bring key aspects of their software portfolios online to draw advertising dollars and lure users into buying software upgrades. Until now, Adobe’s business has been based primarily on packaged software.
A sneak peek at online photography’s future: the company currently has four editions of its Photoshop software, beginning with the high-end CS2 package which is targeted to creative professionals all the way to the free Album Starter Edition which is for the casual photographer. The online offering will be more like the consumer products, according to Adobe.
The company also recently announced that it was entering into a partnership with image- and video-hosting web site Photobucket in order to give the site’s 35 million users free access to Adobe’s web-based video editing tools.
The company has also said that it is planning to announce more partnerships with Internet companies over the coming months, and that the undertakings would be driven by its desire for increased advertising revenue and boosted software upgrades from existing customers.
The timeline for Photobucket features to become available to the site’s users is sometime in March. Adobe’s shift to free online applications follows similar moves by other software makers. Google (Charts), for instance, has released online word processing and spreadsheet software under the Google Docs banner
