Adobe Announces Creative Cloud Updates, Expanded Creative Profile

[Flight Plan]

I now avoid all Adobe software where there's an alternative, because I think they'll be lazy and eventually start making every product a subscription like CC.

Yeah, I said it; lazy. Because they think they can lock you in and you won't leave. So they don't really have to even try anymore.

I look forward to the day I can get rid of Flash and Reader.

Adobe: Phoning it in

 

[campyguy]

Turns out I was half right, half wrong. The deal itself is a limited time offer, but I'm grandfathered in at $10 a month for as long as I keep my sub active.

You're one-third right, two-thirds wrong . Itzamna is correct, at least until the next set of CC plans is out. Adobe introduced a new new Creative Cloud Photography plan @ $10 per month plus taxes - see the new offers section of their blog entry - http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/creative-cloud-for-2014-is-here/

 

[MRU]

I'm worried that they are calling this update "2014"

Are they going to a strict yearly release model?

They've had a couple updates a year over the past two years.

EDIT:

And it looks like they are installing the CC 2014 version alongside the original CC version.

I see:

Photoshop CC
Photoshop CC 2014
After Effects CC
After Effects CC 2014

Is anyone else noticing this?

.

Yeah I had to uninstall the CC versions individually ... Can't say huge difference in the 2014 editions other than new splash screens.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I now avoid all Adobe software where there's an alternative, because I think they'll be lazy and eventually start making every product a subscription like CC.

Yeah, I said it; lazy. Because they think they can lock you in and you won't leave. So they don't really have to even try anymore.

I look forward to the day I can get rid of Flash and Reader.

Adobe: Phoning it in

Since CC began... there have been more updates than ever before. It seems they are trying harder.

Adobe knows you can leave at any time. There are, and have always been, alternatives to Adobe products. This is nothing new.

Apple, Avid, Quark, Corel, Phase One... they all make software that do exactly the same things as their Adobe counterparts.

You say Adobe will get lazy and stop improving their software.

I disagree. I say they'll have to work even harder to improve their software. And we're seeing that already.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Yeah, I said it; lazy. Because they think they can lock you in and you won't leave. So they don't really have to even try anymore.

Sure they have to keep trying otherwise competing products will take away their business. The cost for CC is so little that it's by no means a 'lock in' cost. Many people spent $70,000-80,000 per machine when using Avid for video editing 10 years ago and a lot of them sold their systems at a loss and moved to Final Cut Pro. $600/yr for a subscription isn't even close to that kind of financial commitment. People pay more than that for cable and cell phone plans.

 

[AppleDroid]

IMO, $50/month is too much for that kind of potential customer. Some of them will be students so they'll get the $20/month rate, but even that's too high and many of those customers won't be students.

Every time Adobe do anything to CC, we get back in to this discussion. Adobe won't change their model until they're forced to. We need to support folks like Pixelmator so they can catch up with Photoshop in as many areas as possible as quickly as possible.

You just hit the nail on the head. They don't make money off people who want software for pennies or upgrade once every 5 years. They know those people generally just find cracked versions to use for free anyway. The pricing is for the working professional who earns a living by using their software. $50x12 payments = $600/yr. If you make even $40k/year that equates to 1.5% of your earnings. Hell by comparison an average smartphone plan in the US averages around $90/mo or $1080/year which makes CC look like a bargain.

 

[Flight Plan]

Since CC began... there have been more updates than ever before. It seems they are trying harder.

Adobe knows you can leave at any time. There are, and have always been, alternatives to Adobe products. This is nothing new.

Apple, Avid, Quark, Corel, Phase One... they all make software that do exactly the same things as their Adobe counterparts.

You say Adobe will get lazy and stop improving their software.

I disagree. I say they'll have to work even harder to improve their software. And we're seeing that already.

But I disagree. It is not human nature to leave a subscription. We will whine and moan but we will not leave, and even moreso we will not leave because in this case, there's a functional lock-in. You leave, you can't do anything with your content. They are psychological glue. In Adobe's case, the subscription model is more like a "fix", because ya gotta have it.

Sure they have to keep trying otherwise competing products will take away their business. The cost for CC is so little that it's by no means a 'lock in' cost...

Oh but there IS a lock in cost. Trust me.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Sure they have to keep trying otherwise competing products will take away their business. The cost for CC is so little that it's by no means a 'lock in' cost. Many people spent $70,000-80,000 per machine when using Avid for video editing 10 years ago and a lot of them sold their systems at a loss and moved to Final Cut Pro. $600/yr for a subscription isn't even close to that kind of financial commitment. People pay more than that for cable and cell phone plans.

I think the bigger issue comes when we look at who's purchasing the software. I can understand the student/individual perspective. If you're not using the app for a living, then the $600/year subscription "may" hurt a little.

When you're a post house, or a freelancer that usually had to fork out $4500 every three years or less then the cost is negligible.

And yes, I only have internet access and my bill is just shy of $1000 a year.

 

[Michael Scrip]

But I disagree. It is not human nature to leave a subscription. We will whine and moan but we will not leave, and even moreso we will not leave because in this case, there's a functional lock-in. You leave, you can't do anything with your content. They are psychological glue. In Adobe's case, the subscription model is more like a "fix", because ya gotta have it.

Oh but there IS a lock in cost. Trust me.

Look... I get it. Adobe went from a high price, use-forever pricing model... to a lower price, keep-paying subscription.

If you don't like it... take the advice from Samuel L Jackson in Jurassic Park:

"Drop what you're doing and leave now..."

Get as much stuff as you can exported or converted... and switch to other programs.

This will get you started: http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/gr...e-apps-to-everything-in-adobe-creative-cloud/

 

[LethalWolfe]

Oh but there IS a lock in cost. Trust me.

Trust me, it's not a monetary lock in cost for working professionals. If, for example, Pixelmator becomes 'good enough' then Photoshop users that don't like Adobe's subscription model will dump Photoshop for Pixelmator. No one is going to say "Man, I spent $120 on the annual PS/LR combo last year so I better spend $120 again this year as opposed to buying a perpetual license of Pixelmator for $30." If/when better apps exist then people will leave if they want to. I'm half way through my second year of CC and won't sign up again unless I keep getting gigs that require PPro.


Adobe has to keep the annual subscription costs low enough to keep people signing up year after year but that lower monetary investment also makes it easier for people to leave.

If you're not using the app for a living, then the $600/year subscription "may" hurt a little.

Then those people should buy CS6 from Adobe.com or find CS5.5 or 5.0 for super cheap on eBay or Craigslist. If you are just dabbling or brand new to the software you'll be fine on older versions. I'm not sure why people think brand new, professional level software should be priced so that people who don't use the software to earn money would find it affordable.

Hell, there's a lot of hardware/software I would like to have but it doesn't make financial sense for me to buy it. Is it Autodesk's fault that I find Smoke prohibitively expensive? No, I just wouldn't get enough use out of Smoke to justify the expense.

When I was in college we had Avids to edit on (which was somewhat rare in back then) but when I graduated I couldn't afford the $50,000 or so an entry level system would cost so I spent a few grand and built a PC running Adobe Premiere (the old Premiere) with a Matrox RT2500 I/O and DV accelerator card (yes, this was so long ago that computers could barely handle DV footage). It kinda suck, but it was the best I could do at the time and I used small gigs to cover the costs.

After a couple of years I was really over the PC/Premiere experience so I bought a top of the line Mac tower (Dual 1.0 ghz G4 Quicksliver) and a copy of FCP (FCP, just FCP, was $999). I had to finance all this but I considered it an investment since it I would be learning more marketable software and landing more gigs. As I got more gigs I bought a low end broadcast monitor, a CD/DVD labeler, upgraded software, etc.,. but I didn't buy anything that wouldn't earn it's keep. If I was going to spend $600 upgrading my software then I better have a gig lined up that would pay me at least $600. If I was going to spend a couple grand on a new computer then I knew I needed to line up enough gigs to pay for the new computer. I didn't buy anything that wouldn't pay for itself (I still don't).

TL;DR If you want nicer things earn more money so you can buy nicer things.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

http://adobegripes.tumblr.com/

 

[viizi]

The new features in PS are great and the whole application itself feels dare I say.. Snappier.

Anyone who bashes PS because of subscription is just afraid of change. Subscription is a good thing for professionals. Pixelmator is for hobbyists. Anyone willing to argue against that, show me your best Pixelmator work and prove me wrong.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Anyone who bashes PS because of subscription is just afraid of change. Subscription is a good thing for professionals. Pixelmator is for hobbyists. Anyone willing to argue against that, show me your best Pixelmator work and prove me wrong.

Exactly.

And speaking of hobbyists... how many hobbyists actually paid $700 for Photoshop?

Probably not many.

I bet they used Photoshop Elements (which is still available today)

 

[righteye]

Be warned as i understand it everything has to be HTML to work after the update for example if you have an action set that used flash to display an action panel this may not work. Maybe someone with inside knowledge can confirm this.

 

[rheftmann]

Eating their seed corn

Adobe educational rep's have emphatically told me the leasing deal is permanent. Well, Adobe may own the graphic world, but it won't be forever.
Leasing incurs a liability while owning creates an asset. I teach at a very large public college and there is virtually no way of leasing software. Even if I found a funding source whose accounting standards allowed spending on contracts, I am faced with a new cost of (for my studio alone) 28 x $300/year. Now consider our last upgrade was from the original CS (zero, one, whatever) to CS6. That's how often a major college district can afford to upgrade. The money, even if available, may not be available every year. Miss a year with owned software and nobody notices. Not pay the vig' on the contract and we're out of business. Actually the college district would never fund that jump in expense. Stuck with CS6 is bad enough, but add lack of updates such as repair of InDesign booklet imposition feature and poor support of legacy saving just twist the knife. Adobe is abusing their monopoly position, which can't last, with annual profit at the expense of growing the user base.

 

[lucidmedia]

Adobe educational rep's have emphatically told me the leasing deal is permanent. Well, Adobe may own the graphic world, but it won't be forever.
Leasing incurs a liability while owning creates an asset. I teach at a very large public college and there is virtually no way of leasing software. Even if I found a funding source whose accounting standards allowed spending on contracts, I am faced with a new cost of (for my studio alone) 28 x $300/year. Now consider our last upgrade was from the original CS (zero, one, whatever) to CS6. That's how often a major college district can afford to upgrade. The money, even if available, may not be available every year. Miss a year with owned software and nobody notices. Not pay the vig' on the contract and we're out of business. Actually the college district would never fund that jump in expense. Stuck with CS6 is bad enough, but add lack of updates such as repair of InDesign booklet imposition feature and poor support of legacy saving just twist the knife. Adobe is abusing their monopoly position, which can't last, with annual profit at the expense of growing the user base.

I am confused here. Adobe only announced CC solutions for educational institutions quite recently... and they are asking $300 a year per seat? That is certainly way out of range of what my public institution is paying. I suggest talking to a few folks who administer computer labs at similarly sized schools and see what types of deals they are getting cut.

 

[rheftmann]

Yeh, it's $300/student-computer/year all right

Check it at Adobe's own website
https://creative.adobe.com/plans?store_code=us

 

[Michael Scrip]

Check it at Adobe's own website
https://creative.adobe.com/plans?store_code=us

Creative Cloud is $300/year per seat for a lab computer and you get every program Adobe offers.

In the old days that was called Adobe Master Collection. How much did that cost per seat for a university lab? And how much were upgrades?

Granted... you could use that software forever without paying another dime. I'm just curious how much you were paying for a perpetual licence in a university lab.

 

[Larry-K]

Yeah I had to uninstall the CC versions individually ... Can't say huge difference in the 2014 editions other than new splash screens.

Splash Panel updates are easier than bug fixes.

 

[rheftmann]

@94: That is way past my pay grade. I am just a professor so I am not privy to accession matters. I just know we will teach CS6 for a long long time.

 

[Michael Scrip]

@94: That is way past my pay grade. I am just a professor so I am not privy to accession matters. I just know we will teach CS6 for a long long time.

Gotcha... I was just curious.

Your university obviously paid a lot of money for 28 seats of CS long ago... and then they paid again for 28 upgrades to CS6.

I was just wondering how much that cost... and how it would compare to 28 Creative Cloud seats today.

It's certainly a different method of budgeting... huge purchases and upgrades VS smaller monthly fees. But not all organizations are able to do that.