Adobe recently introduced PhotoShop Express, an on-line image-editing program. PhotoShop Express is designed to compete with Google’s Picassa and Shutterfly’s Picnik: two free, yet powerful image-editing programs used by millions of beginning photographers in the consumer market. Since young photographers grow up to become professional photographers, PhotoShop needed a product like Express to maintain relevancy to the next generation.

The PhotoShop Express beta is also a test to see if a single browser-based program could replace both PhotoShop CS3 and the $99 Elements. The plan would be to offer basic photo-editing for free, then encourage users to purchase a subscription to enable premium features. Many future programs (including the next versions of Microsoft Vista and Office) are slated to be totally browser-based. Adobe must certainly be considering this option too as it develops CS4, CS5, and CS6.

Here’s the question: will PhotoShop Express (and the subscription-based model) work for professional photographers? On the one hand, I like the idea of only paying for the functionality I need. On the other hand, I like holding the program CD in my hand. With the CD, I can postpone purchasing the latest upgrade until I’ve got the free time to learn the new features and where they are on the new menus. I don’t want Adobe forcing me to update in the middle of an important project.

It will be interesting to see how the software as a subscription model plays out. I’m willing to keep an open mind, but my gut reaction is that I’m not going to be happy about it.