Adobe plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image editing software within the next six months.

The online service is likely to be a more basic, scaled-down version of the product, offered free of charge with revenue coming from online advertising.

Adobe digital imaging business manager Michael O'Neill said hosted editions of its digital imaging and digital video products are an "obvious place to start " in the firm's quest to find new ways of delivering its technology.

"We've already announced our partnership with Photobucket, to integrate Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology directly into the Photobucket user experience," O'Neill added. "Bringing a Photoshop branded hosted service to market would simply be an extension of our strategy to deliver the best Photoshop for our customers."

David Bradshaw of analyst Ovum argued that Adobe should be able to leverage its Flex technology to ensure the user experience is not denigrated by delivering the software over the internet.

But he added that the tool needs to include an online photo storage service like HP's Snapfish in order to attract people to the site and generate sufficient ad revenue.

"They have lots of potential here but a purely image-editing tool will only get visitors to the site occasionally," Bradshaw explained. "The product doesn't need to be that sophisticated – they just need to meet about 10 percent of the essential functionality and give people a reason to upgrade."

Richard Edwards of analyst Butler Group argued that Adobe could be trying to boost its enterprise presence through the back door, by targeting home users with the web-based product.

"All vendors need to recognise that corporate employees are also consumers," Edwards said. "With Google's [Picasa] photo editing software and Microsoft's Vista capabilities, they're putting pressure on Adobe to come up with new ways of doing things."