By Coolcaesar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Adobe announced on Tuesday the introduction of its Photoshop application for mobile devices, marking its debut on smartphones. The company will provide both a complimentary version and a premium subscription at the most affordable rate to date, priced at $7.99 per month.
Since its initial launch in 1990, Adobe’s digital imaging software has gained such widespread recognition that it has become synonymous with photo editing. Historically, the software has required a financial commitment, with the previous lowest subscription rate being $9.99 per month for users of Apple’s iPad.
Now, Adobe has made a free version available for Apple’s iPhone, with plans for an Android application to follow shortly, as confirmed by Adobe executives to Reuters. The premium subscription, available for $7.99 per month, will offer enhanced features, additional cloud storage, and access to the web-based version of Photoshop for editing on larger displays.
This initiative comes in response to mobile operating systems from Apple and Google’s Alphabet, which have incorporated many traditional Photoshop functionalities, such as color adjustment and object removal, at no cost.
Adobe’s software tailored for creative professionals continues to account for over fifty percent of its sales, even as the company provided a revenue forecast for 2025 in December that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
Deepa Subramaniam, Adobe’s vice president of product marketing for creative applications, emphasized the company’s commitment to attracting younger users who primarily utilize their smartphones as both cameras and editing tools, particularly when they require capabilities beyond those offered by standard mobile operating systems.
The free version of the Photoshop app will include features such as the ability to separate a photo into distinct layers, mask certain areas, and incorporate text—capabilities that can be utilized for creating cover images for podcasts, streaming music playlists, or YouTube videos.
“We dedicated significant time and resources to testing directly with our target audience, which consists of the next generation of creators who engage extensively on their phones. This is their preferred medium for expressing personal creativity, and the application has been specifically designed with them in mind,” Subramaniam stated in an interview with Reuters.
