Adobe today released its Touch Apps to Android Market and gives Android what Linux has been waiting for since 1991: Photoshop.
Photoshop is not necessarily Photoshop. A $10 Photoshop Touch that is
currently offered through Android Market will not replace Photoshop
CS5.5 for the PC or Mac, which will cost at least $200 for an upgrade or
$699 for the full version. The tablet version, which is offered only
for Android 3.1 devices, caters to the creative casual user and does not
(and cannot) offer the same precision editing tools of the desktop
Photoshop version. Consider it a playful version of Photoshop and an app
that goes beyond the already available Photoshop Express.
Adobe Touch Apps also include Ideas (vector based drawings), Kuler
(color themes), Proto (sketching and wireframing app), Debut
(presentation) and Collage (combine photos, drawings and text).
Photoshop Touch includes some basic Photoshop tools that make the
software the most powerful image editing app available for Android
today, including the ability to use layers as well as extract a
background from certain objects. There are a range of effects available
to spruce up your image, in addition to manual adjustment features such
as curves, but tablet users have to be realistic about the fact that
these are mainly features for the time you are on the road, and not when
you have to prep images for publishing or printing. Instead, Photoshop
Touch provides the usual suspects of social features, including sharing
via Facebook or email.
Photoshop Touch is only available for Android devices for $10 and
there is no such app currently available for the iPhone (there is
Photoshop Express for iTunes, however). In fact, this is the first time
Adobe has expanded the Photoshop brand to another platform ever since
Photoshop 1.0 was released for the Mac in 1990 and Photoshop 2.5.1 for
Windows in 1993.
For Adobe, this is a big deal as it carefully maintains and expands
its most valuable brand and indicates a first major move for the company
to earn money with a product that does not run on the desktop, but
clearly connects with its traditional products. For the tablet, it is a
major sign of confidence of a big application manufacturer as Adobe has
generally been viewed as critical software provider for a platform’s
success. For Android, it is an even bigger deal as Android tablets now
get a creative software package that would traditionally cater to Apple
users. Even if it is a casual software package, a Photoshop app that is
unique to Android at this time could be a major selling point for
Google’s Android OS.
Wolfgang Gruener in Products on November 15
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