No I am with you, I really dont understand why people are complaining, and I was a version skipper. PP cost me about $1700 for 5.5, now I get everything for around $360 the first year and $600 each additional year. This is an unbelievable deal and I have loved it. It has opened up a lot more doors for revenue.
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Adobe Announces New Creative Cloud Apps, Abandons Creative Suite
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No I am with you, I really dont understand why people are complaining, and I was a version skipper. PP cost me about $1700 for 5.5, now I get everything for around $360 the first year and $600 each additional year. This is an unbelievable deal and I have loved it. It has opened up a lot more doors for revenue.
Of course this is better for Adobe. But it stinks for the rest of us.
Let's say you purchased the software for $1200 per version (of course they were cheaper years back anyways) and were using it since 1.0. Even though you probably wouldn't have purchased every version. Right now we're on version 13.0 (CS6). Your total cost would be $15,600. If you work in the industry for 50 years and they had this model back in the day and since you started, your total payment would have been $36,000. So, of course Adobe is ecstatic about this. They are increasing their profits by a huge margin. That's the only reason they are doing this.
Let's say you purchased the software for $1200 per version (of course they were cheaper years back anyways) and were using it since 1.0. Even though you probably wouldn't have purchased every version. Right now we're on version 13.0 (CS6). Your total cost would be $15,600. If you work in the industry for 50 years and they had this model back in the day and since you started, your total payment would have been $36,000. So, of course Adobe is ecstatic about this. They are increasing their profits by a huge margin. That's the only reason they are doing this.
What? No thanks. As much as I don't like this new "ownership model" - I definitely don't want Apple buying Adobe and then having control over updates to the apps.
It's the opposite - Adobe will have to to continuously innovate to keep members happy so they continue to be members. Also, you can subscribe to Photoshop only for $19.99/month and always have the latest features.
Absolutely a disgrace for the professional. What is Adobe thinking?
Trying to win a profits by margins business stance I guess, instead of giving the professional the best set of programs needed.
Sad day for the creative professional... very sad.
Trying to win a profits by margins business stance I guess, instead of giving the professional the best set of programs needed.
Sad day for the creative professional... very sad.
I doubt it. There are many man years (centuries?) of labor in those Adobe products and there is not a competitor anywhere near them in terms of comprehensive features. Adobe has also implicitly admitted there is no money in shrink-wrapped software sales any longer. That era has passed and there will be no big player step to compete for the void.
For example, what HTML editors remain in the marketplace that can compete with Dreamweaver? Microsoft has abandoned that market (FrontPage, Expression Web) and Adobe bought up everyone else.
My own admittedly pitifully small software business is seeing crippling (downward) pricing pressure and shrinking new sales. I have no plans to offer my software as a renewable service and the future looks like I will be rapidly out of business. There is no money in it anymore.
The new purchase paradigms are throw-away apps at ridiculously cheap prices (e.g. mobile app stores with no upgrade fee support) or a pay-for-software-as-a-service subscription model.
I'd really like to believe that would happen, but because it takes so long to learn how to use this kind of software, I think Adobe has a bit of a monopoly on a significant number of users... myself included.
I think a lot of people don't understand how this works or what it is, it's really just like buying an app from the Apple App Store. I am sure there is some type of log in required in the app to check your subscription, but the software is downloaded and installed on your computer...
Technically speaking, your apps will reside on your computer, they wont be streamed down. Your license will reside in the cloud.
A better example would be buying a game from Steam. The game is installed locally but ownership/activation is checked in the cloud. Except I believe the Adobe cloud is once every 30 days as a opposed to always-on.
Ouch. Lower initial cost, but vastly higher cost long-term. It's like renting your software.
I'm just glad that Pixelmator is good enough for my modest image creation / manipulation needs.
This far Lightroom looks like it will continue to be available outside the cloud.
Some of you people's have crazy math. I've done my own math based on my usage of soley Photoshop CS.
Initial Photoshop CS4 purchase: $699, released October 2008.
Upgrade pricing for Photoshop CS5: $199, April 2010.
Upgrade pricing for Photoshop CS6: $199, released May 2012.
Expected usage, in months, for CS6 for release date: 15 months.
From October 2008, to May 2012, is 44 months. Add in my expected usage of 15 months for CS6, brings me 59 months.
So what I've spent, actually comes to $18.59 (($699+$199+199)/59) per month. Adobe wins by charging me $19.99, but not by much.
So this subscription might be good. Their challenge is to get people over the psychological hurdle of feeling like they have another bill to pay every month.
Initial Photoshop CS4 purchase: $699, released October 2008.
Upgrade pricing for Photoshop CS5: $199, April 2010.
Upgrade pricing for Photoshop CS6: $199, released May 2012.
Expected usage, in months, for CS6 for release date: 15 months.
From October 2008, to May 2012, is 44 months. Add in my expected usage of 15 months for CS6, brings me 59 months.
So what I've spent, actually comes to $18.59 (($699+$199+199)/59) per month. Adobe wins by charging me $19.99, but not by much.
So this subscription might be good. Their challenge is to get people over the psychological hurdle of feeling like they have another bill to pay every month.
It does seem like there is a lot of misinformation on how it works. But I do think there is just as much negativity stemming from it being subscription only now. No one will actually own a copy. So it could end up being more expensive in the long run depending on how frequent your upgrade schedule was.
EXACTLY!
They lose money on piracy (< ~1 million), but they lose A LOT more money from people who don't upgrade on every release cycle (< ~25 million).
*My figures are not accurate, but just showing an example*
By forcing you to pay into a monthly subscription, they retain a steady cash flow which helps their bottom line. The only good thing to subscription models is that software can be updated whenever they want it to be and not have to wait for a full release cycle.
This is an unfortunate side-effect of cable-based internet. DSL-based internet is proven to be much more reliable, at least in my many years of experience. I'll only use DSL for mission-critical internet connections.