Adobe Announces Major Update to Acrobat.com
Online Service Adds Subscription Offerings and Previews
Spreadsheet Application; Company Articulates Vision for New Way to Work
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Adobe Systems Incorporated
(Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Acrobat.com has moved out of public beta and will
offer two new paid subscription services that add capacity and capabilities for
intensive business use. Since Acrobat.com first launched in June 2008, 5
million people have signed up to use the innovative service, with over 100,000
people signing up each week. Outlining a vision for online collaboration that
establishes a new way for business people to work together on the Web, Adobe
also provided a look into the future of Acrobat.com. Planned features include
shared team workspaces and smartphone access, as well as a spreadsheet-like
application, Acrobat.com Tables, which joins the recently announced
Presentations application on Acrobat.com Labs.
Acrobat.com is poised to become the online destination for
team collaboration, with the tools business people need to get work done
faster, together, from anywhere. Our customers have moved from e-mailing
multiple versions of documents back and forth to collaborating on documents
directly in a fluid online environment, said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice
president, Adobes Business Productivity Business Unit. Over the next 12
months, we will continue to add powerful yet simple-to-use team collaboration
capabilities that establish a new way to work, while removing barriers to
getting work done within and across companies and around the world.
Adobe is announcing two new Acrobat.com Premium subscription
services that address the intense collaboration needs of business people,
enabling them to be more productive by bringing them to documents to work
together in real-time, rather than sending attachments to inboxes and
invitations to calendars. Available today, both Premium offerings include Adobe
phone and Web support programs. The Premium Basic service includes Adobe
ConnectNow Web meeting capacity for up to five participants and online
conversion of 10 uploaded documents to PDF per month. The Premium Plus service
includes ConnectNow Web meeting capacity for up to 20 participants and
unlimited online creation of PDF files. The free service will continue to offer
Adobe® Buzzword® online word processing, ConnectNow Web meeting capacity for up
to three participants, and online creation of up to five PDF files.
Improved collaboration is a critical need for todays
companies that must move faster and do more with less. At the same time,
business people expect to use online technology at work just like they do
outside the workplace – especially the generation now entering the
workforce, said Melissa Webster, program vice president, Content and Digital
Media Technologies, IDC. Successful online collaboration tools will show the
potential of cloud-based services to revolutionize the way business people get
work done by helping teams stay connected and work together much more
efficiently in real-time.
Over the next year, Adobe plans to extend the team
collaboration capabilities of Acrobat.com to provide simple, anywhere access to
an open and comprehensive online workspace, such as:
- More real-time document collaboration tools that use the
power and richness of the Adobe Flash® Platform to provide a cool user
experience in the browser and on the desktop
- A simple new interface that streamlines access to the tools
business people need to create, share and meet online to get work done as a
team
- Shared team workspaces that let groups of people work on
and keep track of documents they need to finish projects, without the pain of
version control and e-mail attachments
- Mobile access so people can upload, manage and share
Acrobat.com documents from iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows® Mobile
smartphones
- Social media style updates from the documents people are
working on to stay informed about what is happening and what needs to be done
- Deeper integration with desktop tools including Adobe
products and Microsoft® Outlook 2007, plus import from and export to Microsoft,
Open Office and PDF formats
- Increased support for the Adobe developer community,
including access to the underlying technologies of Acrobat.com, as well as its
rapidly growing customer base
In support of the Acrobat.com vision, Adobe today also
announced the preview release of Acrobat.com Tables, a spreadsheet-like
application that is available immediately for free sign-up as a public beta,
joining the Acrobat.com Presentations application (see previous
announcement) on Acrobat.com Labs. Acrobat.com Tables provides
people with a new way to work with others on data-intensive documents – such
as task lists, schedules, contacts, budgets and sales numbers – that are
typically created and shared in spreadsheets or simple databases. People can
easily work with others on the same table at the same time, without the worry
of version control or e-mailing spreadsheets back and forth. Because the table
lives online, people can access and work on the data from any
Internet-connected computer, regardless of where they are located.
Pricing and Availability
The Premium Basic subscription is available for US $14.99/month,
or US $149/year. The Premium Plus subscription is available for US $39/month,
or US $390/year. Until July 16, 2009, Adobe is offering US $15 off the Premium
Basic annual plan, and US $50 off the Premium Plus annual plan. Initially, both
subscriptions are available from the Adobe.com online store in North America
only. The preview release versions of Acrobat.com Tables and Presentations are
available for free sign-up on Acrobat.com Labs at http://labs.acrobat.com.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and
information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more
information, visit www.adobe.com.
