News - Microsoft reacts to Adobe abandoning packaged software

[HEXUS]

MS thinks Adobe's move away from perpetual software licenses may be a decade too early.

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[Attila the Bun]

Well that coincides nicely with our planned move away from a very buggy Dreamweaver

[cjs150]

I can see the benefit of this for businesses but not for home use.

I do not mind buying software that I only use infrequently (as long as not too much) but I am not going to pay a monthly rental. So for example I have Office 2007 at home, it means I can work from home on documents without bothering with remote access to my office server. If paying for it monthly I will move to free alternatives

[brasco]

It's perfect for me, already been on it two years (as CS5.5 sub firstly then CC). I am surprised Adobe haven't offered different tiers for people who don't use most of the programs. It's upset a lot of the mographics community, quite a lot of it is totally misunderstanding the product - "OMG ADOBE IS TAKING AWAY MY SOFTWARE IF I DON'T SUBSCRIBE!"- , some are fair concerns about pricing etc.

Risky move, but I actually think they'll attract the pirates and those who couldn't afford it previously but can swallow the smaller outlay to get going.

[3dcandy]

I think this will deter the pirates more than attract them, they could change the protection methods more easily than if it was packaged. I reckon that IS the main reason they've gone for a subscription model...

[Funkstar]

I am surprised Adobe haven't offered different tiers for people who don't use most of the programs.

This. At the moment it's like getting the full Sky package or nothing. I might be tempted if they let you increase the fees on an app by app basis or like £10/month for one, £20/month for three, that kind of thing. Would actually be even more tempted if Lightroom was in there as well as that's the one Adobe app I use regularly.

[Flash477]

Nearly £20 for 1 app, or £50 for the lot per month is an awful lot for a home user who would only use the apps occasionally. Can see CS6 staying around for a long time...

One of the problems with this model of software is that at some point sooner or later is that your computer won't run it anymore and you're forced to upgrade. How quickly that is depends on how quickly they update it, but could be another cost. Even more for Apple users...

[stewis]

We have moved across to Creative Cloud after it was announce/released last year from various versions of CS (from 3 to 6) most we paid for and some had been downloaded (pirated) because the budget wasn't there to spend 1,700 on a new copy of CS6, I know its bad but we all do what we can to survive.

Now we pay for 10 subscriptions and get constant updates and no longer have to pay for the 1700 to update to the latest version every few years because we all have it. This makes sending each other files easier because we dont have to worry about compatibility problems, saving 500 in upgrade fees every 2 years a new version comes out and we get to use software that we would not have had in out £1700 package but was found in the more expensive master collection.

Yeah i sound like a Adobe salesman but subscriptions for software (in digital media companies anyway) are the future.

[mikerr]

This also cuts out the resellers.

[zap117]

At first I was like, Oh great, more programs you have to be online to use... but I checked into it more and I guess that's not true, in which case I see no problem with this move.

[shaithis]

Big increase in the sales/downloads of elements incoming me thinks....

[george1979]

Been using the Creative Cloud suite now for almost a year and its been smooth sailing so far. the integration between their products is excellent and, being a student, I only pay £16 a month. Can't complain but hopefully they have a similar deal for students when I renew in September.

[Biscuit]

I find it hilarious when they go on about it being to provide the best possible functionality, up to date features and support, this is driven by money and nothing else. Obviously they cant say that but come on...

I just hope someone steps up and takes some of the business from under Adobe's nose, as without a packaged product, there is now a pretty sizable gap in the market.

[tfboy]

Admittedly, I haven't tried this yet, but in the broadcast industry where Photoshop and particularly Premiere are used quite a lot, this could be a killer - a lot of broadcast facilities do not allow Internet access so unless there's a very neat, controllable proxy method, it'll make a lot of disgruntled corporations who may end up voting with their feet...

[phil4]

It worked nicely for me and my wife. We would have stumped up for CS and then upgraded to each new version, and this has nicely spread our costs.

If there was one thing they could to make it more tolerable it would be multiple price points/packs.

Back in the day of buying they has a master pack at full whack with everything then sub packs specialised to web, paper, photo and video work.

My wife for example uses photoshop heavily, and illustrator and fireworks less often. I use dreamweaver for my sins.

So a pay per product doesn't really work, and paying for everything means there is plenty (premier for example) we don't use.

So it's a bit like only having one or the master collection as choices.

In some regards I don't like rental of software, it's like renting a house. And I really can't believe the press pandering to the marketing speak of calling it "cloud" when it's about as loosely connected as, well is almost possible.

It's not ideal for us per as, but not having to splash out thousands up front isn't so bad.

[martian_aphid]

Seems like a very risky strategy to me. Sure they have a market strangehold and their software is often the de-facto choice for certain creative industries but instead of widenening their customer base by making it more accessible I fear this will only benefit hardcore users and large companies but alienate all their other users. Like someone else mentioned, unless they offer a diverse set of packages and perhaps a system to track usage then I see a lot of people sticking with CS6 or whatever version they are currently still running. Plus the supposed appeal of continuous updates and bug-fixes should be a basic expectation for those who have already parted a considerable amount of cash for Adobe software.

I don't yet see merit in a constant subscription when everyone has a varying use case. It's like paying a monthly subscription for your bicycle when one month you might ride it for 3 days every week, yet the next you might not ride it at all. Look how the subscription model is being questioned in MMOs, people may stick with them for a while but the overall tendancy must be for people to cancel them sooner or later. I would imagine they are only seeing the sales for initial interest in the subscription model but haven't yet seen the drop-off in subscribers I feel will inevitably come.