I know I’m not alone in the business world when I say ‘Hooray!’ on the news today that Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ABDE) is launching a new free version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Express. For those small businesses and freelancers who don’t want to pay the large price tag for the full Photoshop product, Photoshop Express is the solution that brings joy to the heart.

It seems that Photoshop Express will have many of the most desirable features of photo editing that people want: the ability to crop, edit, rotate, lighten, etc. It will be a purely Web-based application so that users can login and use it from any computer. As such, the photos will be stored online on Adobe’s hosting platform—“free rent,” as Adobe likes to say—so that users can access and utilize their photos from anywhere via their own online Gallery which is made viewable by the public.

This opens more free options for consumers and business alike. A freelance photographer can display and market their work on their own Gallery. A new small business can save money on software expenses and use Photoshop Express to edit images for its new website and promotional materials. Any business can create a Photoshop Express Gallery as another place to publicly display their product images—another avenue for promoting their brand and products & services.

A further wrinkle in Adobe’s strategy is that it hopes its new free software will introduce its offerings to a greater segment of new costumers who might then upgrade and pay for the more robust versions of Adobe Photoshop, thus bolstering Adobe’s bottom line. This is not an uncommon strategy, and certainly has its merits. Only time will tell how well it works, but I think Photoshop Express is a very savvy move by Adobe.

I love competition, for it spells only more variety and better quality for end users. Businesses will benefit from the new free Photoshop Express.