Adobe unveils support plan

Software publisher Adobe Systems announced a new support plan Monday that's intended to help customers get quick answers about using complex applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Expert Support mainly answers "how to" questions not covered by Adobe's warranty-based support, said James Alexander, director of product management for Adobe. Customers usually try to handle such issues informally, he said, wasting work time. "A large portion of our users are spending their time talking to friends or going to user groups," to resolve problems he said. "They need to know how to do something in Photoshop, and they end up using up a co-worker's time to figure it out."

One-year subscriptions to Expert Support for an individual user will cost $159 with a single Adobe product and $299 with multiple products. A work-group subscription (up to three customers using multiple products) costs $399. Support is also available a la carte at $39 per incident.