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Adobe’s new cloud initiative aimed at creative professionals, known as Adobe Creative Cloud, will go live this spring.
Adobe announced the Adobe Creative Cloud at its MAX 2011 conference last October. In an interview, Heidi Voltmer, director of product marketing for Web and interactive solutions at Adobe, told eWEEK the Creative Cloud would go live to customers this spring along with Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) and other applications.
At MAX Adobe officials said Adobe Creative Cloud would become the focal point for creativity, where millions can access desktop and tablet applications, essential creative services, and share their best work. And Adobe Creative Cloud was announced in parallel with a new set of Adobe Touch Apps for content creation on tablet devices. These new apps bring professional-level creativity to millions of tablet users-from consumers to creative professionals-and utilize hosted cloud-based services to share files, view them across devices or transfer work into Adobe Creative Suite software for further refinement.
“We’re shifting the way we deliver our software to bring forth the Creative Cloud,” Voltmer said.
With its new Creative Cloud, Adobe will be able to deliver innovation faster and provide users with new workflows for new mediums. Moreover, Voltmer said customers won’t have to wait another product cycle for new features as the cloud transforms the company’s relationship with its customers to be centered around delivering continuous value.
When the Creative Cloud goes live this spring it will be accompanied by Creative Suite 6, Adobe Touch Apps, Muse 1.0 and a preview version of Adobe Edge. Adobe Edge is Adobe’s new HTML5 motion and interaction design tool that is bringing Flash-like animation to Websites and mobile apps using the latest capabilities of HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Adobe Muse is the company’s product that enables graphic designers to create HTML Websites without writing code.
Voltmer said the Adobe Creative Cloud will deliver everything creatives need from ideation to content publishing for $49.99 a month. The Creative Cloud will feature all of Adobe’s creative applications including: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Audition, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Fireworks, Flash Pro, Acrobat, Edge and Muse. It also will feature all the new Touch Apps including: Kuler, Photoshop Touch, Collage, Proto, Debut and Ideas.
The new Creative Cloud also will feature a Creative Community, which will include capabilities that encourage creative types to present and share their work and ideas with peers around the world and a forum for feedback and inspiration that will foster connections between creative people. Adobe Creative Cloud will become a focal point for anyone creative, the company said.
In addition, an Adobe Creative Cloud membership enables users to take advantage of creative services, including device and PC sync services and 20GB of cloud storage. Users also get to tap into Adobe cloud services such as: Typekit, Adobe’s cloud-based service for Web fonts; Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition, for publishing content to tablets; and Adobe Business Catalyst, for building and managing businesses online.
Voltmer said once the Creative Cloud goes live, Adobe will continue to make a series of additions to its creative portfolio, including a new version of Adobe Lightroom in the cloud. Photoshop Lightroom enables professional photographers to import, manage and present large volumes of digital photographs. Also, Adobe will deliver Edge 1.0 and a team/enterprise membership offering for the Creative Cloud. Adobe also plans to deliver a new version of Acrobat to the Creative Cloud as well as several other features that will only be available to Creative Cloud members, Voltmer said. The team offering will be released in the fall and will cost $69.99 per license per month, Adobe said.
Applications Installed and Run on Desktop
Meanwhile, Voltmer took a moment to clarify some of what she called misconceptions about Adobe Creative Cloud. One misconception is that the Creative Cloud apps are delivered as a service.
“The applications are installed and run on the desktop; this is not software as a service,” Voltmer said.
Moreover, clarifying other misconceptions, Voltmer said upgrades are included in the cloud membership so users can upgrade whenever they want. Voltmer also said all desktop apps will be cross-platform and syncing work to the Adobe Creative Cloud is optional. In addition, she said individual product subscriptions and Touch Apps will get users storage in Creative Cloud, and will be priced attractively.
Meanwhile, Voltmer said CS6 will be the cornerstone of the initial release of Creative Cloud. CS6 will also be made available just as Adobe makes it available today: as individual products and suites, as individual purchases and volume licensing, and as upgrades and full versions.
In November, Adobe announced a restructuring to focus on digital marketing and digital media. The Adobe Creative Cloud is in the sweet spot of the company’s digital media strategy. At the time of the restructuring, Adobe officials said key elements of the company’s digital media strategy included:
“continuing to deliver innovation on PCs through its Creative Suite software while extending its customer reach through tablet-based touch apps and cloud-based software delivery;shifting resources to support even greater investment in HTML5, through tools like Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Edge and PhoneGap, recently added through the acquisition of Nitobi;focusing Flash resources on delivering the most advanced PC Web experiences, including gaming and premium video, as well as mobile apps;enhancing digital publishing solutions to empower media companies to profit through publishing their content to any screen;investing in media monetization, including the large growth opportunity in video advertising, facilitated by the acquisition of Auditude; andextending its leadership in document services with its Acrobat product line and increasing its focus on the growing category of electronic contracts and signatures through its acquisition of EchoSign.“