According to a source, Adobe has begun testing free access to the Photoshop online app. It was first made available to paying Creative Cloud subscribers in October of last year. In Canada, Adobe has made the web app available for free accounts, which the firm refers to as a “freemium” experience. “We want to make [Photoshop] more accessible and easy for more people to test it out and experience the product,” Adobe VP of digital photography Maria Yap told the source.
Why Adobe is Launching Free Photoshop Version?
Adobe is almost synonymous with artistic tools and services. And Photoshop is one of the most popular products in the Adobe Creative Cloud. It is only available as a paid service and was previously only available as a one-time license purchase model under the Creative Suite brand. Since the launch of Creative Cloud a decade ago, Adobe has transitioned to a subscription model making its products cheaper for customers and allowing Adobe to collect longer-term revenue than before.
For average users, however, Adobe’s subscription prices for access to Photoshop or any of the other products in its Creative Cloud bundle are quite pricey. As a result, consumers are forced to either utilize unlicensed, pirated copies of Adobe’s apps or move to a competing provider. Adobe appears to be attempting to address this attrition rate with a new free tier available solely on the web. If made available, the free version of Photoshop will join other web-based picture editing and creation applications, such as Pixlr, that are already free but feature-rich. According to reports, Adobe Photoshop’s free tier will include a limited set of functions that will be accessible via the web app. Whereas access to some of the more complex tools and filters will be restricted to paying customers. Also read: Microsoft is working on bringing games in Team Meetings
