Adobe shifts attention to mobile as it launches Photoshop for Apple iPad

Adobe Inc. unveiled a new generation of Photoshop that will be available on Apple Inc.'s iPad for the first time, signaling an acceleration in the software maker's drive to boost sales with more mobile applications.

Photoshop CC will be available to customers in 2019, the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement Monday.

The announcement is the culmination of Adobe's long-held goal to bring its iconic image-editing programme to mobile devices. Adobe has been on a multiyear journey to modernize its dominant creative media software, after shifting all of its apps to the cloud in 2012. With Photoshop CC, Adobe has stepped up its multi-device strategy to capture creative professionals and hobbyists who enjoy working on touchscreens.

"It's a tip of the spear moment because this is where the rest of Creative Cloud will go,'' Scott Belsky, Adobe's chief product officer and executive vice president of Creative Cloud, said in an interview.

Bloomberg News reported in July that a new version of Photoshop for the iPad would debut in October before going on sale next year. A new version of Illustrator is in development but a longer way off from being released, people familiar with the plans said in July.

Adobe is hosting its annual creative conference, MAX, in Los Angeles this week, where it will showcase its latest apps and concepts. The company will also preview Gemini, a new drawing app that's slated to be available on the iPad in 2019. The creative software giant launched Premiere Rush CC, a mobile app that helps edit social-media videos.

Adobe is also presenting a production version of its new augmented reality program, called Project Aero. The software, due to go on sale next year, is a back-end system for designers and artists to create AR content that individuals can see through a screen or AR glasses.