Adobe Announces New Creative Cloud Apps, Abandons Creative Suite

[50548]

I have said this many times before. ALL applications are going this way, cloud computing, which is fee based of course. Microsoft will be doing it to. Get used to it or move over to linux folks. More and more programs are going that way.

It doesn't matter - MS Office 2011 is gonna be useable for many years on my Mac, just like the 2008 version was before. Likewise for anyone using Adobe's current NON-CLOUD suite.

This common fallacy of "I always have to buy the latest, therefore cloud solutions are the best" has to end.

 

[Mr.damien]

Paying CC and very happy with that. CS was too expensive anyway...

 

[acearchie]

I really think that Apple has gone in the right direction in terms of "pro" apps and pricing with FCPx.

I realise there are still two very distinct marmite style camps but many are trying it out after the few updates and realising that it is a very robust affordable editor.

Apple is not only getting current pros but also hopefully getting the pros of tomorrow interested.

A young person is going to look at $300 as an achievable purchase but $699 a year as a joke and move elsewhere.

Personally I am in a slight quandary as we were given CS6 free at Uni (for whilst we were studying at uni, I.e. my license expires in about a month) and therefore I will soon be stuck with paying the Adobe CC fee or jumping ship to learn something else just after I have learnt everything from Adobe. Monthly instalments scare me as a young person and I have watched too many of my friends get caught up in monthly mobile phones, internet, tv and streaming subscriptions before they see the bigger picture on how much they are spending and ending up significantly overdrawn!

If CC comes with a minimum contract e.g. 12 months then I really think I will find a new or hopefully used copy of CS6 and stick it out for the next few years.

 

[tod]

the shift will allow Adobe's engineers the "ability to focus," providing quicker updates and more innovative features in the future.

What BS. Creative Suite IS Creative Cloud, just a version that you pay for once. When they go Cloud only you're going to be downloading the Photoshop and Illustrator binaries just like before. All they have to do is offer a version that you don't have to keep paying for.

What I hate most is lying. If they had said "we're going subscription only because it's a better business model" I could at least respect their candor. But to hear this junk about "it will help us focus," well, it's total PR fantasy.

 

[baryon]

I think the subscription model makes a lot of sense because:

• You pay small amounts regularly instead of gigantic amounts randomly every once in a while
• You have a constantly updated version of your software, and don't have to put up with outdated stuff just because you can't afford to upgrade, or don't see enough benefit
• Anyone who makes money can afford it for sure
• Adobe has a constant income for constant development

… however, this will be a major problem for people who:

• Don't make money regularly, or don't make money from Adobe products
• Don't mind having an old version
• Only use a product randomly, every once in a while, in a way that is not predictable
• People who just hate the concept of subscribing, and hate the thought of immediately losing all their software were they to not afford a monthly payment

I personally like the feeling of owning something, and having it forever, but I also like the feeling of having up to date features (such as liquify for smart objects, which I have always been wishing for, and enhancements to Camera Raw). I do hate subscriptions, and that's the only reason I don't own a smartphone. I like saving up, paying a big sum, and then owning something forever. But nowadays, nothing lasts forever. While you used to buy a Leica camera that would last you a lifetime, today and iPhone will only last you a few years, software will become obsolete soon, and hardware will not be able to cope with new software within years. So you're technically always "subscribing" to something, but instead of paying monthly, you pay randomly, a big sum every few years. It's less stressful: you can't afford CS6? That's okay, just stick with your CS3 for a few more months, it won't be that bad. But you can't afford your next monthly installment? Too bad, you'll have no Photoshop at all.

I honestly don't know if I like it or hate it. It makes sense, it will work, it will reduce piracy, it will make Photoshop affordable (because it was ridiculously overpriced, especially if you're not in the retouching/photography business). But psychologically, it will suck. It will add stress and it will remove some freedom: you won't be able to take time off from your job and have no income for a few months, while continuing to enjoy life. You'll instantly lose everything you felt like you own. But this will become the case with everything anyway, soon. You're already paying off your smartphone by the month, you're already buying OS X every year, and you're already buying a new computer every 3 years. Might as well consolidate them into monthly payments…

PS: Yes Apple is pricing their pro apps very low, but keep in mind that Apple makes most of their money elsewhere, from hardware sales. Their pro apps just make their platform and ecosystem a lot more compelling (you want FCP X? you'll need a Mac for that). Adobe makes money just from software.

 

[acearchie]

Paying CC and very happy with that. CS was too expensive anyway...

Just out of interest are you paying for the whole "suite" or single apps?

I thought the costs worked out similar per year to just buying the CS?

 

[benpatient]

More than the annoyance of paying a subscription... what really gets me is that I need to be able to work offline. Sometimes my internet connection goes down. For awhile! How can they address this? How about a renewable certificate where you download the software when you're online... and the certificate is good for one month. When you're online again, the certificate renews along with your subscription payment. At least it can let us work offline!

Does your internet go down for a month at a time?

I've gone on a working vacation for 3 weeks without any real internet access, and none of my Creative Cloud apps asked me to verify anything. They just worked.

The one time something asked me to verify, I just typed in my email and account password, and the app went on about its business 3 seconds later. That's one time in 9 months since we upgraded from CS4 to Creative Cloud. Three seconds of inconvenience. And if I want to learn how to edit video, I just download Premiere and AE, and head over to Lynda.com.

 

[fivedots]

I really think that Apple has gone in the right direction in terms of "pro" apps and pricing with FCPx.

I would just love for them to go in any direction with the rest of their pro apps. Or even vaguely commit to inching in an unspecified direction at some point in the unspecified future.

 

[haravikk]

I guess this is one way to combat piracy

Or encourage more people to resort to it; these are still meant to be desktop apps, so if a skilled pirate out there can figure out how to fake the always-on connection or remove the need for it then the pirate community will end up with mostly full-featured, offline versions of the apps for free, which is going to be more appealing than ever.


I really don't see this being successfully; it's just too inflexible. At least with the previous creative suites there were a range of prices, and if you couldn't afford to upgrade to the latest version each time a new one came out, you could just skip every second version or something, and spread out the cost.

What Adobe needed to do was to make these apps more accessible with cheaper prices, or better slimmed down options that can still do what a semi-professional needs to do, because their previous price structure has always been far too inaccessible, which only prompted rampant piracy of their products. This subscription system is still going to cost far too much, and the idea of a lifetime of payments to keep using the apps is going to turn away a lot of people.

I mean, it doesn't seem to me like it'll be cheaper, except maybe to those who historically always updated to the latest version as soon as it came out, but even then it's not clear how often new updates will come out.

They would have been better off with a reduced initial cost, and an optional subscription to get lots of great online features, plus access to discounted future upgrades. But their actual plan is just too dramatic a shift.

 

[handsome pete]

Paying CC and very happy with that. CS was too expensive anyway...

It depends on how you use it. How long to do plan on continuing to us creative cloud?

 

[benpatient]

What BS. Creative Suite IS Creative Cloud, just a version that you pay for once. When they go Cloud only you're going to be downloading the Photoshop and Illustrator binaries just like before. All they have to do is offer a version that you don't have to keep paying for.

What I hate most is lying. If they had said "we're going subscription only because it's a better business model" I could at least respect their candor. But to hear this junk about "it will help us focus," well, it's total PR fantasy.

It's not actually BS. Most of Adobe's teams work on schedules that don't necessarily line up with the 18 month Creative Suite release window. Every release of CS since v. 1, we've had some apps that get great new features, and some that get almost nothing...except a new loading screen and dock icon.

And you know that there have been times when the latest version of InDesign was ready to go, but there wasn't a CS release scheduled for 10 more months, so they just shelved it and waited until the whole suite was ready to go.

Now we will get the latest version of things when they are available, and not when the next major version of the Suite is all ready to go.

 

[Cactii]

From what I know about it, you'll still be downloading Photoshop/Illustrator/Etc and installing them as usual. The only thing that's different about the "cloud" versions is how you license it. It's all about monthly payments and connecting to the internet to verify you're valid instead of buying a key, putting it in, and never worrying about it again.

Question is, does it require you to be online 24/7 for it to work? It'd kinda suck if your internet goes down, and PS won't fire up because it can't connect to the master server.

This would be a disaster while trying to show a client one of your projects. I would imagine they will write a encrypted file to your computer including your licensing information during installation in case the internet goes down so you can continue to work.

 

[davenet]

Someone like myself, who is not a professional designer, but likes to have a copy of the software to open the occasional PSD, make a few minor edits, etc, and keeps the same version for a LONG time, would not be interested in paying $600 a year for this privilege. I mostly do web programming and occasionally need to break open Photoshop or Acrobat Pro to edit a file or create a new PDF. I think I will stick with the version I have and call it good. This new plan of Adobe's doesn't fit my business model at all for my little part time side business.

 

[JamesInLA]

Nobody has realised the really big issue.
Under the purchase option, if you don't upgrade, your apps will become further and further out of date, but will be useable for ever more if you can keep a suitable machine going.
Under the subscription option, if you stop paying, your apps become unusable in 30 days...

So you may have paid Adobe for say 5 years, but at the end you have... nothing.

This stinks.

Bye bye Adobe...

Exactly!

It makes no sense to just look at the two prices and say they're reasonably close. In the old scheme, after you pay for it, it keeps working. You choose when/if to pay again. That's why this is both a significant price increase and functionality downgrade.

And to those looking around and saying, "There aren't any real competitors," there's now a gaping opportunity for one. This changes the context and the landscape significantly.

 

[PsudoPowerPoint]

Adobe has no competition of comparable performance to Photoshop. Their only incentive to improve the software is to entice users to upgrade. That incentive would seem to be greatly diminished with a subscription based model.

This decision will create an opportunity for a smart developer to step in and take over the market Adobe is abandoning. On the Mac I think it will create a much bigger market for Aperture plug-ins.

 

[James_C]

The thing that bugs me most about this is, I feel that I am paying the cost of those that like to abuse the system. I have always paid for all of my software and upgrades and there is not one item of pirated software on any of my Macs. This move to CC, is in my opinion primarily a way of reducing piracy.

So to all those people who think it is ok to use cracked software, thanks a bunch - NOT.

 

[dawindmg08]

I've been using the Cloud now for several months and I have to say that I'm very happy with it overall. I thought I would hate the subscription model but it's been a relatively painless transition and the intro pricing at $29/month (I upgraded from CS5) was a no-brainer. My subscription costs for this year are still nowhere near what it would have cost to upgrade even the Master Collection to CS6, so that alone was worth it.

I can see why this development is distressing for casual users or folks who only used a handful of apps; it would be nice if Adobe developed a middle-tier with access to only 3 apps at a time (kind of like the Creative Suites). But in my case it's worth it because I use several of the Cloud apps at a time, often daily (video and design jobs). I had the Master Suite collection before, which would cost well over $600 to update every time there was a version change (including the .5 releases which were really annoying), so paying that much on a yearly basis is not that big a deal when you consider you never have to worry about having the latest version of anything. Plus, I can write this purchase off on my taxes every year.

But I get the anxiety around renting the software. I do. In 5 years, I will have spent $3,000 on this software which will stop working the minute I skip a payment. But if you think about how many different versions of OSX that will entail and how many "forced" app upgrades will go along with that for compatibility, I bet the numbers are close to a wash.

 

[umbilical]

I work for web, so I would love see a merge fireworks to photoshop and kill fireworks... and works like all fireworks things but in photoshop... is better have just on product!

 

[newagemac]

More than the annoyance of paying a subscription... what really gets me is that I need to be able to work offline. Sometimes my internet connection goes down. For awhile! How can they address this? How about a renewable certificate where you download the software when you're online... and the certificate is good for one month. When you're online again, the certificate renews along with your subscription payment. At least it can let us work offline!

I don't think you understand what a Creative Cloud subscription is. The apps themselves are not "in the cloud". You download Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, Dreamweaver, or whatever Adobe app you want directly to your computer and install as normal.

You don't need an internet connection to run the apps on your computer. They're all local. Once a month the software just checks that you have an active subscription but Adobe was already doing that anyway whenever you opened an app.

 

[Atlantico]

So for someone like me who upgraded his Creative Suite Design Standard (because I don't need the other programms) every 2-3 years it is now almost three times more expensive.

And if I stop paying I can't open my files anymore.
I'll stay with CS6 for quite a while that's for sure.

I do hope not too many people buy this so that Adobe has to deliver a different solution.

Anyone still using QuarkXPress? Might be worth a try if all else fails ...

Yeah, I've been using QuarkXPress since 1999 and it is one fine piece of software - the most stunning feature how much faster it is than the competition. It's really light-weight.

I've also used Photoshop and Illustrator.. I'll be holding out on the CS6 versions as long as I can.

So long Adobe. I'll have to look for replacements now.

 

[ChrisA]

All of you who say you don't like this. Here is your opportunity to get rich. Sell a product that competes with Adobe. Don't gripe, take it as an opportunity.

If Adobe can start as a one-man outfit you can do it too.

Actually I suspect Adobe PS Elements will be all that most people need and the big companies that use full suit will be able to afford the new subscription.

Every Adobe product has a competitor. Those guys just got a gift from Adobe.

 

[3282868]

I don't think you understand what a Creative Cloud subscription is. The apps themselves are not "in the cloud". You download Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, Dreamweaver, or whatever Adobe app you want directly to your computer and install as normal.

You don't need an internet connection to run the apps on your computer. They're all local. Once a month the software just checks that you have an active subscription but Adobe was already doing that anyway whenever you opened an app.

Curious (and serious) question for you or anyone experienced in such matters. If this new method is "calling home" once a month to verify subscription, how is that different from Adobe app's calling home when opened/used? As I understand it, pirating CSX now means the "Hosts" file can be modified to block or trick Adobe app's from calling home or believing they have. This is one (of many) area('s) I'm ignorant in, I always wondered about the process. If it is the same "system", just done differently, surely someone will craft a way around this model. No?

 

[jpmohr]

Tell him:
Adobe
Shantanu Narayen CEO
E-mail snarayen@adobe.com

I don't know if it will do any good, but I sent an email...

Basically, I told him that I find the new CC license model unacceptable since, after paying $50/mo for year, you "own"* nothing. I suggested a "own that version" strategy instead -- meaning, if you stop paying the subscription after a year, you just stop getting updates... But to say I cannot use it at all is absurd.

I hung on to CS3 for a long time and around Sept. 2012 I finally upgraded to CS6 - and that was pricey! So $600 to upgrade isn't terrible, but only if I can "own" something (meaning I can continue to use beyond that 1-year, if I want to - even without updates).

My other issue and I emailed Mr. Narayen is that the CC license model would potentially require me to upgrade my Mac's hardware at some point. Right now, my Creative Suite runs great on my Mac, who's to say that CC won't require me upgraded my Mac in order for it to work?

The lack of "owning" something is what I find most troubling...

*One can argue that you never "own" software, that you only license it... that may be true, but I can still re-install and use it whenever I want to (giving the feeling of ownership) without having to repay for that version. That's what Adobe needs to continue to offer.

 

[JAQ]

Good thing I've already found replacements for all of the Adobe software I used to use, because it was too expensive. I'm using Manga Studio for drawing (and the new version will be better for coloring), Scribus for the little bit of DTP I do, and Pixelmator for photo manipulation. There is no way I'm going to start "renting" software.

 

[Renzatic]

This common fallacy of "I always have to buy the latest, therefore cloud solutions are the best" has to end.

But even if you don't include the upgrades, it still takes two to four years of subscribing before you match the cost of the store bought versions.

That's the biggest advantage to the sub service. It's a lower cost, stretched out over time. It's only more expensive for people who buy one version, then only upgrade every 4 versions. Even then those people only start taking a relative hit to their wallet after a span of years.

The biggest disadvantage is, of course, that you don't officially own the software. You can lease it for up to a year, and its yours to do with as you please for that amount of time. Once that year is over, you have to lease it again or lose it entirely.