If you were on a subscription they would be updating the software. They won't charge you for outdated software, that would just be stupid. Adobe is in the business to make money, so they will keep their apps up to date. Apple doesn't care about old apps anymore. They just let them sit and rot away.
Do you honestly think Adobe will stop making Photoshop or Premiere?
I have no idea what economic theory drives your assertions... Do you not see the asymmetry?
Subscription creates a
barrier to exit.
There's the inertia aspect-- rather than taking time to decide whether to upgrade and keeping the money in your pocket, you take time to decide whether to drop the subscription and they keep the money in theirs.
But more importantly there's the fact that if I choose to stop a subscription, I lose access not to the new features, but the old ones as well and, in many cases, to the work I created using that tool.
If I'm running a budget shortfall one month, I might postpone an upgrade. I suppose people could lapse a payment and forfeit access to some form of entertainment, but a small business relying on a subscription software package would be unable to work billable hours for that month and they'd lose access to their clients data.
I don't go to my favorite restaurant every day, slap $10 on the counter and say "I hope you make something tasty on Sunday!", and I sure as heck am not expected to regurgitate what I ate last week if I stop paying this week.
I don't know why you think paying in advance would keep software updated. Prevent it from breaking down, maybe if revenues are sufficiently high, but improve it? They won't charge you for outdated software because that would be stupid? That's not stupid, that's the gravy train.
Here's the feature list for
CC2019:
- You can create a placeholder mask before putting an image in it.
- Content aware fill got moved to a new workspace.
- Cmd-Z for undo.
- Transformation reference point now defaults hidden rather than shown.
- Double-click to edit text.
- Commit text by clicking outside the box.
- Transformations now default to proportional for some objects.
- You can lock panels to prevent dragging.
- When you select a blend mode you can see a preview.
- If you use Photoshop to paint, you can mirror your brush strokes.
- Color wheel color selector
- New home screen lobby
- You can use your own images in the tutorials
- Distribute spacing of objects (like Adobe Illustrator)
- Math in number fields
- Hover to see the full layer name
- Match Font now support Japanese
- You can flip the canvas horizontally
- Lorem Ipsum placeholder text
- Customize keyboard shortcuts for Select and Mask
- Preference to increase UI size
- Support for South East Asian scripts
Maybe the Frames and symmetry brush features are actual features-- just about everything else is UI refinement. I love "lorem ipsum" text as much as the next guy, but this is an update I'd pass on unless I lived in South East Asia. But if I was on the CC treadmill, I wouldn't be able to because I couldn't use CC2018 if I didn't keep paying the man.
It's not just Adobe. Microsoft is in the same boat. I updated from MS Office 2011 to 2019 and I can't even tell you what changed aside from that infernal smiley face in my titlebar. So I'm missing out on all the new features before I update again in 10 years-- doesn't seem like I'm missing enough to get myself roped into Office365.
The software plateaued, and the companies are out of ideas but won't give up the revenue.
If your revenue depends on enticing people to update, then you are motivated to make the updates frequent, timely and valuable. If your revenue is a recurring payment from a credit card, and the user has to go through serious withdrawl if they miss a dose, then there's just not as much motivation.
