Adobe announced a new flash-based mobile application yesterday - the Photoshop.com Mobile for Windows and Palm based smartphones. An extension to the Photoshop.com web interface, this new application will enable users to upload pictures taken from their phone camera to their Photoshop.com accounts directly.

Photoshop.com Mobile version

According to Bill Perry, an evangelist for mobile devices at Adobe, the main reason for developing a mobile-specific application is due to the emergence of smartphones with decent camera functionalities.

According to latest reports, almost 83% of smartphones in the USA are camera-enabled. Owing to this, the demand for a direct upload service, which would help users bypass the need to transfer their images to a PC to be able to upload them, is high. Although users have options to upload images from their mobile phones for services such as Flickr and Blogger, Photoshop.com users were stuck with old-fashioned PC uploads.

As of now, only selected Windows Mobile and Palm OS based smartphones are supported. These include the Samsung Blackjack I, Samsung Blackjack II, Motorola MOTO Q 9h, Motorola MOTO Q Music 9m, Palm Treo 700 w/wx, and the Palm Treo 750. What about other WM phones that are not listed? We don't know just yet.

However, there seems to be an attempt to use third party software like Shozu, which is already an experienced player in mobile social media services. Prima facie, it seems Adobe has tied up with Shozu so that users who don't have one of the supported phones can still upload to their Photoshop.com accounts. As of now, there is no reference to the Photoshop.com site on the Symbian version of Shozu I'm using. However, we expect it to be added once the service goes live in September.

The addition of Shozu could also help Photoshop.com users in India as Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices have not made much inroads in our country. On the other hand, Nokia phones and Shozu are widely used by the mobile online community here. In this scenario, the tie-up with Shozu will definitely help Adobe.

To use this application, you will need to sign up for a Photoshop.com account. The beta version of the application can be downloaded from Photoshop.com Mobile by late September.

Shozu on a Symbian device