Adobe launches Creative Cloud, two new iOS apps, Muse HTML5 tool

AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.

Adobe on Friday launched Creative Cloud, a service that allows users subscription-based access to the company's media creation and editing tools, as well as two "touch apps" for iOS and the Muse HTML5 web tool.

The release comes less than a week after Adobe rolled out its Creative Suite 6 software lineup which includes new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, lllustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash Professional and other products.

Officially announced alongside CS6 in April, Creative Cloud is a more affordable alternative to the expensive design, Web, video and digital imaging bundles offered to professionals. With a one-year $49.99 per month contract, customers have access to download and install all CS6 software as well as add-on Touch Apps like Photoshop Touch. Month-to-month subscriptions are also offered at a price of $74.99 per month, while owners of CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 get an introductory price of $29.99 per month. Education pricing is also available.

â€œAdobe Creative Cloud members receive full access to the entire portfolio of Creative Suite 6 tools, integration with our touch tools, file storage and sharing services and Web hosting â€“ everything they need to go from idea to finished work, at a breakthrough monthly subscription price,â€œ said Senior Vice President of Adobe's Digital Media Business David Wadhwani. â€œCreative Cloud will allow our product teams to unleash a constant stream of innovation, releasing new features, apps and services as they are developed.â€

The addition of two Touch Apps, which can be purchased separately for $9.99 each, bring the total of mobile-centric Adobe products to six and include Photoshop Touch, presentation app Debut, website prototyping app Proto, brainstorming app Collage, design app Ideas and color theme app Kuler. Of the six, Adobe Debut and Adobe Kuler are currently Android-Only, though iOS versions are in the pipeline.

Included Creative Cloud software. | Source: Adobe

Adobe's HTML5 solution, Muse, was also released on Friday after spending nearly 9 months in an open public beta that saw over 700,000 downloads. The new website creation tool allows graphic designers not versed in code writing to build HTML pages using tools similar to those found in Adobe's InDesign print layout software.

While Muse is included in Creative Cloud's entry price, free-standing subscriptions to the website builder can be purchased for $14.99 per month on an annual contract or $24.99 month-to-month. Both versions include a limited amount of site hosting, though Adobe hasn't released specifics regarding bandwidth or site size.

💬 26 Comments

mj web

said about 10 years ago

I upgraded PS CS3 to PS CS6 and I must say for $199 it was a worthy upgrade. I'm thrilled to have the new groovy dark UI, fast graphics engine, 64 bit ops, and nifty new tools. CS6 was the first version of PS Adobe compelled me to upgrade to since CS3. Got along fine with the old warhorse.

Now Adobe has intro'd this Cloud service, something I predict is destined to fail for the same reason I didn't upgrade PS from CS3 until CS6. The reason being, Adobe is a transparently greedy company always on the come offering ridiculously expensive unnecessary incremental upgrades the world can live without. But I love my PS CS6!

mark fearing

said about 10 years ago

My complaint is it takes so much time to figure out what is the best option. I have the production bundle from CS5, but I upgraded inDesign to 5.5. I use photoshop the most so I might just upgrade that. I use AE less and less. I have almost never touched most of the other apps from the production bundle.

I've downloaded Muse and am playing with it. Might like to use that...but they only offer it as a subscription.

It's so confusing and such a mess. It's like they are making it as confusing as possible. I do not like the idea of renting software and I can't imagine wanting all that 'stuff' installed.

I do wish they went back to putting out good software that wasn't buggy. I remember when they would put out a version AND offer valuable upgrades along the way to the next big upgrade. Now they put something out, that usually has some bad bugs. They might or might not fix those with point upgrades, then it's time for another $600 bucks.

It gets old. I think lowering prices is smarter than this subscription stuff. But then again, after their 'CEO' got into that P match with Steve Jobs over Flash, it was obvious they are not what they used to be. The higher-ups are just milking the company for what they can get. So yeah, it's not like I enjoy dealing with them anymore.

mstone

said about 10 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Fearing

What you write does not make sense. Unless things have changed since I last inquired you cannot upgrade just a single app based on a previous suite purchase. You have to pay full price if you want to revert back to purchasing / upgrading on an app by app basis.

nvidia2008

said about 10 years ago

I've stopped using Adobe for now. For design mockups Keynote is great. For photo-manipulation stuff Pixelmator looks decent. I don't do much vector stuff but I hear there's a lot out there. For coding Coda is a superior alternative to Dreamweaver. Then of course there's Logic and iMovie/Final Cut. So for "pros" Adobe is de facto, fine, but for small business/ small-medium enterprise which needs to produce or manipulate its own new media, alternatives to the very expensive Creative Suite are attractive and available now.

nvidia2008

said about 10 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Fearing

I've downloaded Muse and am playing with it. Might like to use that...but they only offer it as a subscription.

It's so confusing and such a mess. It's like they are making it as confusing as possible. I do not like the idea of renting software and I can't imagine wanting all that 'stuff' installed.

Indeed, the peak of Adobe seems to have come and recently passed. This is typical of what Tribal Leadership calls Stage 3 behaviour. Once interests are entrenched in a company's culture, everything stagnates and is focused on each department or the whole company "optimising" what they can and relying on business models that simply don't apply to the real world as much as they used to.

In terms of new media anyway, a lot of design can be done based on the values and vision of the organisation, rather than being the "best designer". Once that shift in thinking occurs, so too the need to evaluate whether Creative Suite is used for values and vision or for "me being the best designer".