I would never claim to be a designer – there are too many highly qualified individuals out there who have spent too much time and money, and have too much talent, to ever place myself amongst their ranks. I have however spent quite a bit of time teaching myself the basics of Photoshop (um.. 6.0 actually – though a lot of the skills lend themselves to the newer versions), and have gotten quite good at graphics manipulation. So when Adobe announced that they were releasing Photoshop for the iPhone, I readied my pocketbook and headed over to the iStore.

My first sign that this was not the Photoshop I was looking for was the price. I’m a full believer that you get what you pay for in the app store – and when I saw that the Photoshop app was free, I knew that the graphic editing power I was hoping to be able to carry in my pocket with me was not going to be there. Adobe is not one to put shabby products into the marketplace however – so I pressed on to see what this app was all about.

The application, while not the set of photoshop tools I was hoping it would be, is still quality.There are basic photo manipulation tools such as the ability to crop, rotate and flip, and the ability to make your iPhone photos black and white is also nice. There are also a few (I would like more) basic filters and effects to add interesting looks to your images.

The main function of the Photoshop iPhone app however – is a marketing tool.

Have you ever heard of Photoshop.com? No – its not the Adobe website that has the product information for Photoshop on it that only graphic designers would visit – its a photo upload and management site akin to Kodak Gallery and Photobucket that allows you to upload and host photos online. While Kodak’s marketing difference in this field is the ability to order prints and other photo paraphanilia – Photoshop’s is their editing capabilities from within the site itself. I did not notice any attempt to upsell any other Adobe product on the site, however I imagine it will be coming once they have a larger audience.

 Expect to see more and more brands using mobile apps to promote online and even offline products in the future. Here are a few of our favorites:

Webber’s On The Grill

Benjamin Moore’s "Ben Color Capture" House Painting Tool

Zippo Virtual Lighter

Charmin Toilet Paper’s "Sit or Squat"

CNN News App