Adobe Offering Photoshop CC and Lightroom for $9.99/Month to Current Photoshop Owners

[kerryb]

$10

When ever a big corporation says "we listened to our customer's feedback" that means, "we screwed up and got too greedy and a lot less people took the bait than we expected". I imagine there are those that use more than 3 or 4 apps in the suite of Adobe apps but I would guess that most customers use 1 or 2 on average. I switched to Muse this year after hanging on to GoLive (yes I know it's dated) for the past 4 years. It's decent for a non-code person like myself. I justified the $15 per month for my business website and maybe if I were making websites as a profession it would be a no brainer. However I am staying with PS 6 for as long as possible or until Adobe has brought something incredible to that program to improve. Don't buy into the subscription if you can avoid it.

 

[Porco]

I'm with the 'say no to software rental' brigade. There are some cases where it makes sense, but not for software that has always traditionally worked as a one-time fee product, and certainly not when you unnecessarily take away the option to make a one-time purchase altogether - that's as good as an admission they're ripping you off in my book. If the subscription model is so great, let the market prove it instead of forcing it on everyone.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I don't have a problem "renting" software, but I do have a problem with a forced upgrade and backdoor price hike, which is what CC represents. I don't think most companies or independents and certainly not hobbyists typically upgraded every version of PS or CS. Adobe recognized that so the built a new business model that takes the upgrade decision out of user's control. It's like buying a car off the lot that includes bogus dealer add-ons like rust shield.

 

[charliex5]

I guess Adobe have not heard of Pixelmator then?

Any Photographer can get the excellent Pixelmator for a £10 one time payment, instead of paying Adobe £10 per month forever! They can also get FREE online synced storage from DropBox or Google Drive and if they are into sharing stuff there is always Facebook. How is this an "Offer"?

Looks like Adobes feet could have holes in them eh?

Clearly you don't "get" Lightroom. My wife and I shot weddings for 6 years and when you have 5-6 thousand photos to edit (or more), Pixelmator would kill you. You'd never get it done.

Sure, the subscription thing sucks but there are very few legitimate options. For an advanced user there is nothing as good (not to mention compatible industry wide) as most of Adobe's products. They easily have power users backed into a corner. I've always thought that if somebody came in with a competing product suite (not just Pixelmator which is basically Photoshop from a few years back) and charged half what Adobe does that they could take the industry over. Hell, charge the same, people would just be happy for a breath of fresh air.

I don't mean to be down on Pixelmator. I own it and have used it a bit; it just isn't up to par with most professionals' needs.

 

[jdechko]

Why would I want constant updates? I only upgrade software when there's a clear benefit.

If everyone had that attitude, there would be little or no incentive to create new versions of software.

Software like Office, Creative Suite and AutoCAD/Revit is expensive because it takes a long time and a lot of money to develop. I'd be willing to say that the majority of sales are within the first few months of a new version, and if it takes a few years to get a newer version out the door, sales have really tailed off.

Revenue would be down right when you are putting the finishing touches on the new version. And with the prevailing attitude of not upgrading because the current version works fine, revenues for the new version might actually be down or less than the development costs.

Rather than have a bunch of revenue up front, the companies (Microsoft, Adobe & Autodesk) have decided to have the revenue stretched out over time, which makes much more sense from a business planning perspective.

Put another way, would you rather receive your entire salary for the year on Jan 1 or receive it in payments stretched throughout the year?

I know that neither you, nor anyone else in this thread, has said otherwise, but developers should be paid for their work, whether it's a single guy or gal writing an iOS app or a large corporation. The old software model has had a pretty good run, and I think there are still plenty of justifications for providing the traditional upgrade path, but times are also changing. It's a lot of work getting your software to work with yearly updates to iOS / MacOS, not to mention adding new features. We, as users, shouldn't expect everything to be free.

 

[GuitarDTO]

Gee whiz, thanks Adobe for considering those of us who are on the fence about whether or not your software is worth it. Believe it or not, some of us don't have previous versions of Photoshop but would consider joining the club if you weren't pricing yourself out of serious consideration.

This is none other than a pathetic attempt to get existing users to switch over to the cloud, with the intention to price hike later.

 

[iChrist]

WOW, This is great. The two apps i use most. Will get this.

Please. This is a suckers deal. Adobe hasn't done anything new in years. LR5 has a couple minor features and PS is nothing new either. But sure, go and pay them every month for nothing.

 

[mactmaster]

Offfer?

 

[Jessica Lares]

Really you are learning Flash? Please look into HTML5 animation apps and skip Flash it is a dead end.

Yeah, because HTML5 is suitable for producing 30 minutes to two hours worth of animation?

We are not there yet.

It is the last class I need for my certificate (or the second to last). I know it's not the best for web authoring anymore, but it's still usable for animating in general.

 

[charliex5]

Yeah, because HTML5 is suitable for producing 30 minutes to two hours worth of animation?

We are not there yet.

It is the last class I need for my certificate (or the second to last). I know it's not the best for web authoring anymore, but it's still usable for animating in general.

After Effects is much better suited to animation. Flash for 30 min - 2 hr animations? Are you nuts?

 

[wildmac]

9.99 would not be bad, except.. the price will be $29.99 or higher after the first year...

Just upgraded my box copy of LR from 3 to 5, and will stay on PS 5.5 until the OS/hardware don't support it.

 

[jclardy]

Is this $9.99 a set price or is it like a 1 year only kind of offer?

I own CS5 right now but it sucks on my retina MBP, $9.99 a month isn't bad for always having the latest version..

Of course, I already bought lightroom 5 so not that great a deal for me. Maybe i'll just try and get photoshop 5.5 with retina support.

 

[tizeye]

I love how everybody is assuming that Adobe will innovate and continually push them out. I take a contrarian view. By tying everyone to subscription, they gain cash flow and are relieved of the requirement to innovate. Rather, now they are offering variations for subscription cash flow. Previously, they had to innovate because their profits were dependent on their existing customer base upgrading on either a one or two year basis - or pay full price if exceeding 2 versions back. After Puppet Warp, improved video handling, etc added in CS6...perhaps they didn't have anything blockbuster 'must have' on the table and needed the subscription cash flow.

Me? I have CS6 plus Lightroom and will keep it as long as possible. By the time it becomes dated, I will be retired and the last thing I need on fixed income is a subscription. This is one of the factors that is driving me away from Windows (in addition to Win 8) as I will transition early from Premier Pro to FC Pro. Now if Apple would beef up Aperture for some of Lightroom's capabilities, or even create a competitor to Photoshop. Prior to Photoshop I use Paint Shop Pro with the most recent version supporting 64 bit. It is an excellent program, if only Corel had a dedicated Mac version, rather than running in Parallels. The only reason I switched was I created a photography business and you better know the industry standard.

 

[Jessica Lares]

After Effects is much better suited to animation. Flash for 30 min - 2 hr animations? Are you nuts?

I only know how to import and export in After Effects. So yes, I am nuts and have no idea. But these are basic classes and not the more intermediate ones you can take later on.

 

[Glassed Silver]

This. I'm not renting software. Will not. Absolutely not.

How old is everyone here?

I'm 24 and I sure hope my generation or younger doesn't "grow into this" but smell the trouble right away.

I don't want this to work out for Adobe one bit.
If they succeed it means more software will be delivered in this fashion and one thing I can tell you, if it means I'll use super ridiculously old software in the future, so be it.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Jessica Lares]

How old is everyone here?

I'm 24 and I sure hope my generation or younger doesn't "grow into this" but smell the trouble right away.

I don't want this to work out for Adobe one bit.
If they succeed it means more software will be delivered in this fashion and one thing I can tell you, if it means I'll use super ridiculously old software in the future, so be it.

Glassed Silver:mac

I am 24. I have a few CS licenses I have gotten in thrown out computers from school over the years. They upgrade to the latest version of the software every year. So does my college.

We learnt how to use the new timeline animation feature last semester in my Digital Imaging I class. You can't do that in CS5 or below. There's a few other new tools we covered too.

For web design and the basic image editing, using older versions is fine. I know some people using Photoshop 6 and 7 still.

However, I found out that when I was going back and forth between CS3 and 5, especially in InDesign and Flash, I would run into compatibility issues everytime.

I have tried Pixelmator and GIMP, but they are too far from Photoshop and I don't have time to learn them when I've been using Adobe's program for over 10 years and it works for me. Plus, Adobe's suite is industry standard, and it's what they teach at school. For hobbyists and people that work on their own, using other software is fine. However, I'm sill stuck to textbooks and lectures that are made around Adobe's stuff.

 

[JayCee842]

We get ripped off by Apple and other companies everyday, so I'm not sure why you are all complaining.

 

[mrgraff]

Thing about Photoshop is that is hasn't changed that much to where the older versions are obsolete. Adobe tries to make you think you need the newest version which is BS, except that they are purposely not supporting RAW Camera file updates. What is so special about Adobe RAW 8.1 that it won't work on CS4? Probably nothing.

I'm taking an "Advanced Photshop" course this semester. The school has Photoshop CC installed in the labs, the teacher said we could get by with CS 6 if need be, I'm doing just fine so far with CS 5.5 at home, and the textbook actually dates back to CS 4.

 

[Eric5h5]

I know that neither you, nor anyone else in this thread, has said otherwise, but developers should be paid for their work, whether it's a single guy or gal writing an iOS app or a large corporation. The old software model has had a pretty good run, and I think there are still plenty of justifications for providing the traditional upgrade path, but times are also changing. It's a lot of work getting your software to work with yearly updates to iOS / MacOS, not to mention adding new features. We, as users, shouldn't expect everything to be free.

You might want to know that I earn 100% of my income as a software developer. I absolutely guarantee that it does not take nearly as much effort to do an update as it did to create the application to begin with (a rewrite, yes, but that's another story). Yet some companies seem to think they somehow "deserve" to be paid ever-increasing amounts of money regardless of how little work they may actually be doing. I'm obviously in favor of developers getting paid for their work, but I'm also in favor of not getting screwed over in the name of greed.

--Eric

 

[MacSawdust]

Strings

Here's a chat I had with Adobe.
The Photography offer does not include future software upgrades and does not include PS with 3D capability.
Caveat Emptor.

 

[GuitarDTO]

Here's a chat I had with Adobe.
The Photography offer does not include future software upgrades and does not include PS with 3D capability.
Caveat Emptor.

Wow. That "conversation" was a pathetic sales attempt. Do they genuinely think people are stupid?

 

[dlbmacfan]

Here's a chat I had with Adobe.
The Photography offer does not include future software upgrades and does not include PS with 3D capability.
Caveat Emptor.

I can't speak to the presence or absence of 3D capability, nor do I really care about 3D. But Adobe clearly states that future software updates are included; this was lifted directly from their website.

Photoshop CC
Lightroom 5
20 GB of online storage
Behance ProSite
Access to Creative Cloud Learn’s training resources
Ongoing upgrades and updates

 

[VenusianSky]

Here's a chat I had with Adobe.
The Photography offer does not include future software upgrades and does not include PS with 3D capability.
Caveat Emptor.

I like how the conversation ended when the person asked you "wouldn't you agree the upgrade is worth it". Lol

As for this subscription cloud software, I remember hearing years ago that this was going to be the future of software. I am talking as far back as the nineties maybe. Web services were the future. The big companies were just waiting for the Internet infrastructure to catch up. Microsoft .NET framework was created for this. It makes sense for the software companies, but I don't like it.

 

[Joele25]

I agree with almost everyone here. I do not want a subscription to software, period. I really do not understand why Adobe keeps telling in all their advertisements that their clients WANT a subscription service. Who are these masked people?!?

I have CS6 and that will be the last version I buy if they go to 100% subscription. I am an Aperture user also and it accounts for about 90% of my post production work. Now if Apple would stop concentrating on its iPhone, iPad and iOS7 and remember all the professionals out there, some attention and an upgrade to Aperture is needed. DO YOU HEAR US APPLE????

 

[shinji]

Here's a chat I had with Adobe.
The Photography offer does not include future software upgrades and does not include PS with 3D capability.
Caveat Emptor.

That rep was a bit awkward.

They may not be including Lightroom updates, but it includes Photoshop CC. Photoshop CC is continuously updated.

Is this $9.99 a set price or is it like a 1 year only kind of offer?

It's $9.99 indefinitely, for the life of the subscription. If you cancel and then want to rejoin, it goes to the higher rate. They are also converting people who "own" Photoshop CC by itself (i.e. not the full CC membership) to this program automatically http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html#pslr-bundle