Adobe Announces New Creative Cloud Apps, Abandons Creative Suite

[gramtrax]

ha. just went to adobe.com to purchase my last hard copy of CS and they are having "technical difficulties" with their online store. Guess I'm not the only one who thought to purchase the latest version and then not upgrade again.

I hope this inspires the photoshop alternatives....

 

[fivedots]

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.

That, and the fact that you can't just stick with CS4, for example, if it meets your needs. So you are required to put out the extra $400 for improvements and features you don't necessarily need.

 

[unplugme71]

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.

Software was always 'rented/leased' never owned. Read your EULA's.

 

[Apple Key]

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.

Don't underestimate the power of unhappy customers. There is always the possibility for a newcomer to hit the market. I'm not saying it would be easy or quick, but it can be done. If necessary, I have no doubt that it will.

 

[jameskachan]

cut the price in half

Cut the price in half, then we can talk, $600 a year forever is too much money.

 

[sfwalter]

I'm seriously disappointed by this news. The $600 is great if you use more than a couple of the apps. However if you are like me and only use Photoshop then its not that great.

Once they get a large number of the folks on the creative cloud what incentive will they have to innovate? They already have you in their ecosystem. The reason they added features to the previous versions was to get more money by getting folks to upgrade.

Once you go to their creative cloud there is no incentive for them to win your business. Its kind of like when you are in a middle of a cell phone contract they don't need to anything to make you happy. Its only the new folks they need to make happy.

 

[fivedots]

If Lightroom goes subscription based, I may have to leave Adobe altogether.

If only Aperture 4 would appear...

 

[spazzcat]

What. The. Hell???

I hate this. I'm a 21 year veteran of print design and production... and have used adobe products that entire time. They have no equal!

How can I work from cloud-based software when I have crappy, unreliable internet by AT&T??? My U-verse internet goes down intermittently ALL THE TIME. I can't handle that. I need my software local. This is bad. I would rather pay big bucks for the download that you can OWN and keep LOCAL. This cloud thing is going to take power away from personal computing and turn them all into dumb terminals. Big brother can now control our tools.

Great.

You download the software to your computer, just like now. It is not run from the cloud...

 

[sfwalter]

Don't underestimate the power of unhappy customers. There is always the possibility for a newcomer to hit the market. I'm not saying it would be easy or quick, but it can be done. If necessary, I have no doubt that it will.

Come on Apple release that Photoshop Killer we know you have in your labs.

 

[Gravity]

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.

Actually, AT&T is DSL and Comcast (who I used to have) is cable. Cable was much more reliable than AT&T's DSL line... which drops connection CONSTANTLY. It's annoying when I'm using Netflix, especially.

 

[mytdave]

For real?

Is this for real? If so, they're insane! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot... Another company who erroneously thinks all computers are connected to the internet. Surprise! It isn't so!

Goodbye Adobe, it was nice knowing you.

 

[fivedots]

I'm seriously disappointed by this news. The $600 is great if you use more than a couple of the apps. However if you are like me and only use Photoshop then its not that great.

You likely will still be able to license only Photoshop (or other individual apps) for $19.99 / month as you can right now.

 

[SockRolid]

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. 🙁

Yup. This is why Microsoft doesn't simplify Windows + Office. Too much money to be made in the "computer training" industry.

 

[jonnysods]

I"m buying a copy of CS6 (on CS5) and not adopting to this model (until around 4 years from now!)

 

[handsome pete]

The new pen and ruler iPad devices look interesting..

Link: http://xdce.adobe.com/mighty/

Do they have any demos or technical specs on those.

Without any wacom like pressure sensitivity, I can't see a pen/stylus being very useable on the ipad.

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.

You make a good point about them trying to get people to not think of it as yet another monthly bill. But as I mentioned earlier, it eliminates the choice in upgrade paths. While some upgrade regularly, others can get away with using the same version for 4-5 years. I would imagine customers buying many seats at a time don't upgrade as often. They also usually wait some time until all of the bugs/issues are resolved when new versions are introduced.

 

[omgwut]

The new pen and ruler iPad devices look interesting..


Link: http://xdce.adobe.com/mighty/

Oh damn, those look cool. How did they manage pressure sensitivity on the iPad's apacitive display, though? I was under the belief that the screen lacks the electromagnetic induction tech that's needed to work with pressure sensitive devices like Wacom pens, etc. Unless the pressure sensors are purely in the pen itself, in which case I'm assuming this would only work with Adobe branded apps, and not others like Paper?

I keep hoping Apple is going to step up like some Android tablet developers and build some wireless pen tech into the iPad display, though.

The nib on that Mighty pen looks nice and sharp, though. That's what I despise about most stylus pens, using them is like dragging around a fat, meaty severed finger that keeps getting stuck.

 

[spazzcat]

I'm seriously disappointed by this news. The $600 is great if you use more than a couple of the apps. However if you are like me and only use Photoshop then its not that great.

Once they get a large number of the folks on the creative cloud what incentive will they have to innovate? They already have you in their ecosystem. The reason they added features to the previous versions was to get more money by getting folks to upgrade.

Once you go to their creative cloud there is no incentive for them to win your business. Its kind of like when you are in a middle of a cell phone contract they don't need to anything to make you happy. Its only the new folks they need to make happy.

It cost less if you already own a copy of CS3 or greater. Also, its less if you only want one app. Also, Adobe does not care about the one off people using Photoshop. They only care about business people using their software and most of them update every year or every other year. So, it cheaper to go this route.

 

[FSMBP]

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.

I don't know about that...the things businesses love about subscriptions is that its automatically taken out of customers' accounts each month. It's easy for customers to not be conscience of these charges; think about gyms, magazine subscriptions auto-renewal, Netflix.

I've gone months without using Netflix but never cancelled it in the off-chance I may watch something when I'm bored.

And unfortunately, Adobe has a monopoly on photo-editing. That along with a subscription based model won't make them work harder to get better features.

Just look at Netflix, they just lost 2,000 movies/shows in the month of May. If they were a pay per title place, they would have tried harder to renew contracts with those studios.

 

[enigma2118]

3rd party plugins and whatnot

Man, what about the 3rd-party plugins and extensions. There are some really wonderful ones that I use a lot. Is this going to kill those companies? Suppose they will have to come up with stand-alone versions (kinda like Perfect Photo Suite did?)

 

[dyn]

The transition to moving EVERYTHING to the cloud will be the biggest thing to happen to the computer industry in quite some time.

For that quite some laws in various countries need to be changed quite drastically. The chance of that ever happening is near an absolute zero. Also, cloud computing is just a marketing term for something that we've been doing for decades now: server based computing. We started out like this by using terminals hooked up to mainframes where all the magic happened.

The new CC is more like a subscription based service with local installed software but it could all be bound together by servers. Not actual cloud computing as we know it in the form of say iCloud, GoogleApps, etc.

 

[Mac21ND]

Subscription models are only good if you fully utilize the service. If you only use, say, Dreamweaver and Photoshop, you're leaving the ability to use InDesign, Muse, Edge, Illustrator, etc; at the door.

Pardon the bad analogy, but it's like health care. You're paying for benefits (most likely) anyways, so it makes sense to go to the doctor when you're sick.

=

If you're already paying for Illustrator, then perhaps you should learn how to use it.

 

[Razeus]

You make a good point about them trying to get people to not think of it as yet another monthly bill. But as I mentioned earlier, it eliminates the choice in upgrade paths. While some upgrade regularly, others can get away with using the same version for 4-5 years. I would imagine customers buying many seats at a time don't upgrade as often. They also usually wait some time until all of the bugs/issues are resolved when new versions are introduced.

I'm just pointing out people that upgrade every time there's a new release. CS6 was suppose to be my last upgrade for at least 2-3 versions as I feel the software can't do much more as for as photos are concerned.

But that leaves me vulnerable to camera upgrades because older versions of Camera Raw don't get updates for new cameras, FORCING me to upgrade. It's a game that Adobe is playing to get people to update their software. I got tired of that game.

I know people that still use CS2.

 

[handsome pete]

Man, what about the 3rd-party plugins and extensions. There are some really wonderful ones that I use a lot. Is this going to kill those companies? Suppose they will have to come up with stand-alone versions (kinda like Perfect Photo Suite did?)

Plugins will operate like they always have. Again, you will have the software installed locally. The cloud part is only to recognize the license.

 

[uptownnyc]

Lots of pros are not going to like this change to service based and cloud based apps.

For Pro's it's an easy tax-deductible cost. If what you're making can't cover $30-$50/month, you need to raise your rates or look into alternatives.

 

[applexpanther]

It's not cloud based software. It runs just like it always has, on your local machine. You download it, install it, and run it like always.

I guess I'm in the minority, but Creative Cloud has been simply awesome for me.

I agree. I love it. I'm particularly fond of the creative cloud file syncing on my computer, too.