Adobe's SaaS strategy
At MAX and Web 2.0, Adobe announced how it is shifting all of their apps online, transforming them into Software as [a] Services [SaaS], although it would probably be about 10 years for such a shift to be complete. The Web as the computing platform of the future certainly has currency. Yet, this points to something rather more important - the large-scale adoption of Web 2.0 and RIA principles in Adobe software.
What is so important with respect to the Web 2.0 and RIA model is the notion of keeping things simple, requiring a focus on usability and experience rather than features alone. The Lightroom effort reflected one of the initial efforts in this shift - making photo management and effects usable and intuitive rather than loading the product with edge scenario features, ones only experts would use. These can always be provided through other channels.
Expanding on this shift Adobe has launched stripped down online versions of some of its apps. Premiere Express, which powers the video mashups at sites like Photobucket and YouTube, is a splendid online video editor, offering enough facility to reach out to the broader market. The Photoshop Express web app is also very impressive, offering a subset of features that are useful and usable by the broader community - well short of their traditional software package, but cleverly applying the 80/20 rule. Keep things simple, keep them lightweight - the majority of users will apply and appreciate these 80% features, and Premier and Photoshop Express online provide these. For the 20% features, their users are advanced and experienced enough to understand that these are better served through traditional channels.
While the 10 year prognostication seems a bit distant, it is not inaccurate - the meaning of it being that if you want full-service Photoshop CSX(?) on the web, you may be waiting a while. How? If you really need Photoshop CS, its features and power, you're more than likely prepared and well-adjusted to use it installed on your high-powered design machine for the near future. Meanwhile, those users who really benefit from having Photoshop on the web as a SaaS will use and appreciate those features available now on the web, with a few more thrown in which will arrive in subsequent releases.
Those '10 years' (whether truly 10 years or not, we will see, I rather expect sooner than later) will be employed to determine how to embed the high-level processing necessary for such things as managing multiple layers, calculating the math behind vector graphics, applying complex filters, etc. are achievable in the RIA technology set. 10 years may be accurate as to how long it will take the US to join the developed world in broadband internet bandwidth, so as to support complex web apps at speeds comparable to desktop apps.
Some additional press regarding Adobe's SaaS (PaaS?) strategy can be found here:
Comments