The Chrome OS has caused many consumers to shy away from Google's netbooks and opt for the compatibility of a Windows-based laptop, but a new partnership with Adobe brings industry-standard productivity software to Chromebooks via the cloud.
U.S. customers of Adobe's education program can stream Photoshop to their Chromebooks, according to Google in an announcement welcoming Adobe's Creative Cloud to the Chrome OS-based netbooks.
"This streaming version of Photoshop is designed to run straight from the cloud to your Chromebook," Google says. "It's always up-to-date and fully integrated with Google Drive, so there's no need to download and re-upload files -- just save your art directly from Photoshop to the cloud. For IT administrators, it's easy to manage, with no long client installation and one-click deployment to your team's Chromebooks."
Google's announcement indicated that more Adobe programs would be offered later through the partnership, stating that Photoshop was the initial offering. The announcement's language also indicated that the availability of the feature on Chromebooks would expand beyond academia in the future.
The Student and Teacher Edition of Creative Cloud also includes Lightroom, Illustrator, 20 GB of cloud storage space and a ProSite portfolio website. Adobe also offers subscriptions to Creative Cloud services that allow individuals to stream a single or Adobe app for $19.99 per month or rent the entire suite for $49.99 each month.
The ability to run Adobe products on the Chrome OS is a big step for Google's Chromebooks, as consumers often pony up the extra $100 or $200 to buy a laptop that will run familiar productivity suites like Microsoft Office and Adobe's offerings. That customer timidity and those lost conversions aren't lost on Google, who also took another step toward bolstering Chrome OS with the wealth of software found in the Google Play Store.
Earlier in September, Google announced the first batch of Android apps that have been reworked to run on Chromebooks. Duolingo, a language tutor; Evernote, a suite of note-taking tools; Sight Words, a vocabulary enhancement utility; and Vine, a video-sharing service for short clips.
"These first apps are the result of a project called the App Runtime for Chrome (Beta), which we announced earlier this summer at Google I/O," said Google. "Over the coming months, we'll be working with a select group of Android developers to add more of your favorite apps so you'll have a more seamless experience across your Android phone and Chromebook."
