Apple announced its Cloud-based service named iCloud and Autodesk unveiled its first set of Cloud-based apps. The latest candidate to jump to Cloud bandwagon is Adobe Inc, a company that is known for making industry leading design apps like Photoshop and InDesign. At Adobe Max 2011 conference taking place at Los Angeles, Adobe unveiled its upcoming Cloud service targeted at graphic design professionals and web designers. This is going to benefit design professionals who move a lot and require frequent access to their resources and documents.
Adobe Creative Cloud is a web based software service that will enable designers and developers to access resources and use them with a plethora of Adobe apps across various platforms, seamlessly. Interestingly, Adobe also launched a set of Touch apps at this event which are compatible with this Cloud service. These apps are targeted at Android tablet users.
Adobe Creative Cloud comprises of three components- Services, Applications and Community.
- Applications include newly announced Tablet based Touch apps and Desktop Creative Suite.
- Services will comprise of Digital Publishing Suite technologies and Cloud-based font service.
- Community will let users leverage Cloud for purposes like presentation, collaboration, etc. For graphic web design, Creative Cloud will be helpful as it offers a humongous 20GB online storage.
Adobe’s newest apps like Muse and Edge, along with Touch apps, will be included in Cloud membership and it is also possible to apply for individual apps. Chief technology officer of Adobe, Kevin Lynch said on unveiling of Cloud and new apps that Adobe is going to offer creative professionals newer ways to utilise their design skills and streamline workflow. According to him, Creative Cloud, in alliance with Adobe Touch apps, will let designers speed up work and collaborate and share resources with co-workers in a hassle-free way.
However, some of these Touch apps run only on Android while a few are meant for iPad. In near future, all these apps will be made available for both platforms. Users subscribing to Cloud services will be able to download desktop versions of Adobe’s mainstream design apps like Dreamweaver and Photoshop, and their updates in future.
It remains to be seen how design professionals respond to this service once it gets launched. Details on pricing are yet to be made available, but Adobe has hinted that Cloud subscription will not be expensive. Industry sources indicate that Adobe has done lots of research before launching this Cloud service and Touch apps. Its research indicates a majority of designers are likely to use tablets in near future.
iPad design apps have already received accolades from users. Adobe wants to utilise the boom in tablet market and offer designers an alternate way to explore their creativity.