Survey: Do Adobe’s mobile apps draw you in?

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Adobe Systems does a decent job selling software that creative types use on their personal computers. But how is Adobe’s expansion to phones and tablets coming along?

That’s one question CNET is trying to answer in our latest survey, run in conjunction with analysts at RBC Capital Markets. We’re also curious about whether Adobe’s consumer-focused Photoshop Elements has a future now that the company is pushing the combination of full-fledged Photoshop, Lightroom and Lightroom Mobile for $10 a month.

After we gather survey data, we’ll publish results. (Your responses are anonymous unless you want to leave your email address for follow-up questions.)

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The results will help you figure out whether you’re an early adopter, a laggard or in good company. It’s also an opportunity to express whether you’re pleased or disgruntled with Adobe’s direction.

Adobe has an abundance of apps for mobile devices powered by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android software. Indeed, the San Jose, California-based company has released, remixed and canceled so many apps over the years that it can be hard to keep up with the options. Some apps, like Illustrator Draw and Photoshop Sketch, require a Creative Cloud subscription. Others, like Lightroom Mobile, work without it. We’d like to know which apps appeal to you.

Adobe has been moving from its traditional perpetual-licensing sales approach to its new Creative Cloud subscriptions, attracting 6.2 million subscribers since the option kicked off in 2012. The photography-specific option at $10 per month is more affordable than the full Creative Cloud plan at $50 per month, but the full plan grants access to all of Adobe’s PC software, like Premiere Pro, Illustrator and the new Animate, and to all of the company’s mobile apps, too.

But getting you to make the jump to phones and tablets is a challenge for Adobe and its old-school brand. Hundreds of millions of people already use Facebook’s Instagram social app to edit and share photos, leading a lively photographic life on their phones without ever touching Adobe software. And for the artsy set, the VSCO Cam photography app is popular, with more than 10 million downloads on Android devices alone.

Related stories

• 2013 survey: Creative Suite users loathe Adobe’s subscriptions
• 2013 survey: Adobe photography promotion lures new subscribers
• 2014 survey: Despite complaints, most Creative Cloud subscribers to renew
• 2014 survey: Opinions polarized about Adobe Creative Cloud

Although PCs remain essential to Adobe’s core audience of photo editors, video editors, illustrators, animators and website designers, people buy hundreds of millions of phones and tablets each quarter and spend more and more time on them.

For this survey, we also want to find about whether those of you who bought the traditional perpetually licensed versions of Adobe’s Creative Suite products are planning to move to Creative Cloud subscriptions. The CS products haven’t been updated since 2012, but millions of you are sticking with them.

Finally, we’d like to hear where you’re buying and selling your photos. The new Adobe Stock service, based on the Fotolia stock-art licensing site Adobe acquired in 2015, is now integrated with Creative Cloud software. Does that make it a better option when it’s time to buy photos — or if you’re a photographer, a better place to sell them?

To weigh in, click through to take the survey.

Editors’ note: Adobe is not involved in these independent surveys in any way.