Lightroom Is Now “Photoshop Lightroom”

Interesting change in Lightroom’s name. Is it a branding tactic, or does it foreshadow a Photoshop/Lightroom combination similar to the old File Browser?

While researching the release of Adobe’s new sound application Soundbooth, I noticed that Adobe Lightroom is now called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, currently in beta version 4.1. I installed a copy of the beta, but it still calls itself Adobe Lightroom on the About screen and in the header graphic.

What do you think the addition of “Photoshop” means? I personally think it’s going to be a part of Photoshop, similar to what the File Browser was for Photoshop 7 and CS. For those who don’t know, the File Browser was something of an internal Adobe Bridge for Photoshop that allowed for easy display of image collections. It was always popular, but I think Bridge has been less so. I could easily see Adobe bundling Lightroom with Photoshop, not only to return to the ease of File Browser but also to obliterate Apple, which charges $299 for its Aperture product. The blood between Apple and Adobe has been pretty bad since Apple attacked Adobe’s hold on the video market; it seems to me Adobe is retaliating both by launching Lightroom and Soundbooth (look for my coverage of Soundbooth here on Designorati.com).

My last review of Aperture (back in version 1.1) can be found here.