Adobe Creative Cloud

[Rachel Udin]

I learned about this late...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoud...-cc-subscription-release-big-upside-and-risk/

As a graphic designer/website guru, I'm still against it. Well, maybe from the UX side more than the graphic designer side... this obviously came from the top rather than from a UX person...

Thoughts?

 

[CetiAlphaVI]

I'm in design school after almost 20 years of designing as a hobby, and just bought a new copy of CS6 since I had been using CS4. Here's the problems I see with the Creative Cloud.

1) It will be easier for pirates to get copies to pirate.($50 for a month and hack it vs. thousands for a version to hack) Piracy will become more prevalent.

2) Creative Cloud may be cheaper when you look at Adobe's release schedule now, but what happens years down the road. Maybe it's 2 years between updates now and the math works in Creative Cloud's favor. Years from now, it moves to 3 between updates... then 4... and before you know it they aren't updating it anymore because they already have everyone locked in. They get your money either way so why spend for more research and development. You are now paying $600 a year for a program that hasn't been updated in years. (if they don't raise the price after everyone is forced on board)

This will be good for the guys/gals that only need the programs for a few months, but as for the ones that need it long term, they are getting shafted. This only stands to hurt those that legitimately buy the program, use it and upgrade regularly. It will encourage piracy, and hurt the hardworking consumer. I think it's a bad business move.

I'm not saying Adobe is a bad company or that they would actually do these things, but the potential is there and this is a huge step in that direction. Someone needs to build up a company to compete with Adobe. As much as I love using their software they do have a sort of monopoly in that market.

 

[Deleted member 42]

Get used to it; this is the way software is moving.

You'll be getting incremental roll-outs, rather than the large updates.

Enternally Adobe is already working on incremental features.

What you'll see in the future will likely not be fewer updates or static development (hardware is still developing, so Adobe will have to match hardware cycles) but subscription and feature access changes.

I.e. you'll be able to pick levels or features and various prices.

 

[Gale Haut]

Not having good alternatives for the layman would be short sighted and would communicate to the public that Adobe doesn't care about customer loyalty. I would be surprised if they don't find a more accessible option for the regular Janes and Joes.

1) It will be easier for pirates to get copies to pirate.($50 for a month and hack it vs. thousands for a version to hack) Piracy will become more prevalent.

I honestly believe Adobe has already accepted people hacking the trial versions as contributing to their long term marketing interests. I see little change coming in that arena. Perhaps more of their solid customer base will be willing to stoop to finding cracked versions. But the money hogs, the companies who would suffer a great deal for being found out wouldn't stoop so low.

 

[robjvargas]

And hackers are getting account info, too.

 

[Laer Carroll]

I usually buy one less than the latest and greatest of good mature SW. Which is what I did with Photoshop, a cheap version because the price had dropped. It does absolutely everything I need it to do, and I will never upgrade; few upgrades of mature products are worth it.

Another reason to buy one-less versions is that they often have many well-written books on how to use them. I bought two for PS, one a cookbook, one going more deeply into features. Both copies have many glued-in tabs to frequently used features, with lots of yellow emphases of crucial info. A new not-so-greatest-latest would invalidate all that work.

Basically, I raise a finger at Adobe and its subscription model.