Spring Launch For Adobe Creative Cloud Application Suite

Voltmer said once the Creative Cloud goes live, Adobe will continue to make a series of additions to its creative portfolio, including a 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.

The company also plans to deliver an updated 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 (£44.27) per licence per month, Adobe said.

Not a cloud service

Voltmer took a moment to clarify some of what she called misconceptions about 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.

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 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.

Voltmer added that 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. 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 applications to empower media companies to profit through publishing their content to any screen;
• investing in media monetisation, including the large growth opportunity in video advertising, facilitated by the acquisition of Auditude; and
• extending 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.