Adobe Brings Mobile Photoshop, Other Apps to Android Tablets

Adobe may be giving up on the Flash plug-in for Android browsers, but it is still interested in other areas of Google’s mobile operating system.

The software company is announcing this week the arrival of Photoshop Touch, an Android tablet version of its flagship Photoshop product. It’s not the full Photoshop, but does include a wide range of editing tools more typically found on desktop programs.

The company first hinted it was heading in this direction back in March, with a demonstration at Photoshop World in Orlando.

Adobe is actually introducing six apps for Android tablets this week, each selling for about $10, but if you aren’t a creative professional, the others likely won’t interest you. They have to do with things such as picking colors, creating client presentations and doing a quick sketch.

The move is also a modest win for Google and the tablet makers, which have struggled to get apps that are specifically designed for tablets.

Only one of the apps — the sketching program called Ideas — is available for Apple devices. Adobe does plan to bring all of the other apps to Apple’s iOS, but didn’t have any details, other than to expect an announcement in the first quarter of next year.

And that brings up one of the rubs with Adobe’s current mobile strategy. Although the company is clearly toying with different ways to extend creativity from computers to phones and tablets, its strategy is somewhat disjointed.

The company’s earliest mobile efforts included Photoshop Express, a basic photo editing tool that debuted first for the iPhone, and later for the iPad and Android.

Adobe has also offered a couple of products that aim to use a tablet in conjunction with a desktop computer to augment the creative process.

More recently, it introduced Carousel, a subscription service that synchronizes photos across devices. For now, though, Carousel only shares photos across Macs and iOS devices.