Adobe to take Photoshop online

Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systemsplans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshopimage-editing application within six months, the company‘s chiefexecutive said Tuesday.
The online service is part of a larger move to introduce ad-supportedonline services to complement its existing products and broaden thecompany reach into the consumer market, Adobe CEOBruce Chizen told CNET News.com.
High Impact
What‘s new:
Adobeintends to offer a hosted version of its popular Photoshopimage-editing program in the next three to six months, according to CEOBruce Chizen.
Bottom line:
The hosted version ofPhotoshop is part of a bigger company strategy to introduceInternet-delivered services that complement its shrink-wrappedapplications and head off likely competition from Google.

Chizen said Adobe laid the foundation for a hosted Photoshop product withAdobe Remix, a Web-based video-editing tool it offers through thePhotoBucket media-sharing site.
Like Adobe Remix, the hosted Photoshop service is set to be free andmarketed as an entry-level version of Adobe‘s more sophisticatedimage-editing tools, including Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Chizenenvisions revenue from the Photoshop service coming from onlineadvertising.
"That is new (for Adobe). It‘s something we are sensitive to because weare watching folks like Google do it in different categories, and wewant to make sure that we are there before they are, in areas of ourfranchises," Chizen said.
Chizen described the introduction of Adobe Remix and the forthcominghosted Photoshop as part of a larger move toward integrating hostedservices into the company‘s product mix.
Bruce Chizen
Like Microsoft, Adobe‘s business is built largely around packagedsoftware, installed locally on users‘ PCs. Likewise, Adobe‘s plans todiversify its business with online services mirrors a large-scaleeffort atMicrosoft to introduce a combination of software and services.
As online applications become more functional,Adobe is seeking out areas where Web services can fill out its product portfolio, Chizen said.
The company intends tooffer entirely hosted applications, as well as "hybrids," in which Adobe uses the Web to introduce features to desktop products, such asAdobe Photoshop Lightroom, he added.
"We recognize there is a customer there--we recognize they are notgoing to pay us, necessarily, directly. But we could use ad revenue asa model. Google has demonstrated that it works pretty well for certaintypes of applications," Chizen said.
Indeed, Adobe‘s online push has as much to do with consumers‘ expectations as encroaching competition from Google, saidPeter O‘Kelly, an analyst at Burton Group.
"From a digital-media consumer experience, Adobe really needs,for competitive and customer value reasons, to be the end-to-endproducts and services supplier," O‘Kelly said. "It doesn‘t portend wellif Adobe can‘t get on top of it."
The latest version ofGoogle‘s Picasa, which is a desktop application, introduces features topost photos on the Web. It also allows people to read Photoshop files, O‘Kelly noted.
Showdown with Picasa?
Chizen said that although hostedPhotoshop is meant to be a low-end product, the company intends toensure that it is of a higher quality than free alternatives. As anonline image-editing application, Adobe faces a challenge in providinga good experience for customers, he added.
"You don‘t want (network) latency to be an issue for the user, soit‘s harder, in some ways, than a video Remix product," he said. "Eventhough bandwidth is increasing, the pipes are getting filled withvideo, so the user experience will likely stay the same for the nextthree to five years."
The company is also wary of not diluting the brand name ofPhotoshop, a program widely used by creative professionals such as designers and illustrators.
"If we offered a host-based version of Photoshop that‘sPhotoshop-branded (and is) potentially better than Picasa, you‘dprobably go the Photoshop route because of your belief in the Photoshopbrand and the quality associated with the brand," Chizen said.
A Google representative on Wednesday said that the company hashad good success with the Web upload feature in Picasa sinceintroducing it.
"We‘ve seen really exciting growth in Picasa Web Albums since itlaunched last year, and we‘re continually listening to user feedback tofurther improve our products," the Google respresentative said.
As Adobe introduces more online multimedia features andproducts, the company intends to use its expertise in products such asPhotoshop andvideo-editing suite Premiere Pro, and to combine it with the Web development savvy it gained through itsacquisition of Macromedia.
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Remix, for example, was written usingFlex, the development environment for Adobe‘s Flash Player.
Chizen noted that Google‘s wealth of technical talent in Webdevelopment makes it the most likely candidate to challenge Adobe as itoffers hosted media-editing applications. He indicated that Adobe isstill weighing its options in regard to how it will deliver hosted,ad-supported services.
Its deal with PhotoBucket around Adobe Remix is notexclusive. The partnership arrangement allows Adobe to shareadvertising dollars without having to invest in the computinginfrastructure and people to operate the Web site, he said.
But revenues from Web ads could potentially justify an Adobeinvestment in offering hosted services directly, Chizen said. "Once wesee that it could be a significant revenue producer, then maybe we‘llwant to deal with it," he said.
The company already offersAcrobat Connect, a service for Web conferencing introduced with the most recent release of its Acrobat PDF reader.