While the CS Live apps are free for now (Story is still in beta), Adobe is planning a subscription-based model for them eventually, and will add more services to the list in the future, Loiacono said. We have to look at the next generation of the workflow challenges that people are facing.” “At the end of the day, building the next generation of really cool features is a requirement and it’s expected, but it’s not sufficient anymore. “Our beta testers are giving us high marks in hitting the mark on not just key functionality that they need but actually understanding their workflow,” Loiacono said. The updates in CS5-more that 250 new features have been integrated throughout the Master Collection of all programs-address not only technical changes in hardware capabilities to make them faster and more efficient, but also strive to solve workflow problems. So we’re trying to update services much more rapidly…and decouple some of these features that we’re adding and manifest them as services, which allows us to move a lot quicker to modify and test them…I see the services as an extension of the applications,” Loiacono said. “One of the challenges that we have with product cycles that tend to be 18 to 24 months in length, is that they’re long in development.
There is now a greater emphasis on online services that Adobe is relying on bridge the gap between its 18- to 24-month upgrade cycle. The suite now hosts three discrete versions of Flash-the familiar Flash Professional, Flash Builder (previously called Flex Builder), and a brand new interactive design app called Flash Catalyst.