My take for a rescue...fold into Adobe Creative Cloud
I share all your fears for the future of the NIK plug-in's. Don't flame me now (I'm from Oklahoma), but here's a copy of what I submitted to Adobe last week when I first read this news:
Know what would make me buy a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, as opposed to my regular upgrades of the Creative Suite? The addition--and Adobe's acquisition, of course--of the set of NIK Software plug-in's that Google currently owns, and will most assuredly dump in less than a year.
Having been a loyal NIK user for several years, I have read for months now all the comments and posts from NIK users, each of whom is nothing less than shell-shocked by the impending death of the popular NIK plug-ins. We're all just waiting for the other shoe to drop on the plug-in suite, as Google just dropped the desktop Snapseed software today. If they can't make desktop Snapseed work, what in the world are they doing to do with the much more complicated plug-in suite?
Having elbowed my way into the always-packed NIK demo booths at numerous Photoshop World events, I've come to the conclusion that Adobe could double its subscriptions to Creative Cloud by adding these plug-in's to its portfolio. Like the Creative Suite, the NIK plug-in's simply have no equal. So, if Adobe were to acquire the NIK Pro software suite, everybody could live together happily...and Adobe could also happily enrich its coffers with a more substantial continuing revenue stream by making the plug-ins available only to Creative Cloud subscribers. I know I would sign up in a New York minute.
Anyway, that's my goofball idea and suggestion. (Only problem is that I think google paid a billion--with a "B"--dollars for the acquisition, but, knowing fickle Google, I'm sure they will tire of their new "toy" soon. What
like they're gonna make the suite available to Picassa users, most of whom don't even use Photoshop? I don't think so. You could probably get it for a _lot_ cheaper.)
That's my wish for helping to keep NIK Software viable. NIK Software needs a stable financial home, with programmers available, and Adobe needs a "carrot" to entice its regular subscribers to move on over to Creative Cloud. Further, I plan on bending Russell Brown's, Brian Hughes's and anybody else's "Photoshop ears" I can get hold of at Photoshop World April 15-20 in Orlando. Ironically, the Photoshop EXPO booth/area is about ten feet away from the NIK booth. I hope that's not a coincidence