Adobe has announced that in lieu of continuing with the "Creative Suite" naming convention, they have instead changed the outlook of the popular suite of creative software to "Creative Cloud," a move that should not surprise those of you who have followed Adobe over the course of the last year.
The Creative Cloud has without a doubt been Adobe's main focus over the past twelve months, most recently capped by their slough of updates that came immediately upon announcement last fall. Preference was certainly given to Creative Cloud members, as they were immediately pushed the updates while those using CD-based software were forced to wait for the updates to be properly coded.
When Adobe chose CS (Creative Suite) years ago, it marked a mentality shift of where they were bringing the software. At that point, it was about all of their programs working together and advancing on that notion. Today, Adobe takes the plunge on their new mission of bringing creativity anywhere and everywhere through the use of their cloud. This change certainly will illicit stronger emotions from those who have used Adobe for years than the shift to CS did, mostly because the idea of cloud computing with regards to their creative uses is not something that has yet been fully accepted by the masses. CS was more about an internal Adobe mission, CC (though still an internal mission) is also a paradigm shift for Adobe users. So far, acceptance of the Creative Cloud has been mixed, though those of us who have readily moved to the cloud tend to love it.
Some of you may be wondering if Adobe will be removing their physical disc support, and you should be worried: It's ending. CS6 support will still exist, but there will be no updates to it. Creative Cloud is where it's going, and that's it.
How do you feel about Adobe's push? Have you moved to the cloud yet? Will any of you stay steadfastly attached to physical installation discs rather than moving to the Creative Cloud? What will it take to change your mind? Let us know in the comments below.
It will take more competitive pricing to get me to move. $20/mo...really? I guess Adobe is finally exacting revenge for producing the most pirated software in history.
I think it's up to $50 per month!
It's still $20 if you want only Photoshop. The entire suite is $50
It is the most pirated because it is highly overpriced. Bring it down to a fair price and make it easy to find/pay/install and piracy will go down.
I run a studio and we own 3 full licenses. We pay less than $1000 a year for Flash, Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Media Encoder, and everything else Adobe throws in. Plus free updates and support. I don't think we could have gotten a better deal. We don't have the option of pirating so I love what Adobe's doing.
Looks like I'll be on CS6 for a lo-o-ong time. It's not just having to make a special trip somewhere so that I have the bandwidth available to get the software, I also lose the ability to use it when offline for extended periods. There's no upside, really, if you're not a fiber-to-home urbanite, is there?
What rubbish objections. You don't have the bandwidth to download an application once?
And with an annual (cheaper) subscription, you only need to activate once a year. You don't have internet access for years at a time? Really?
Many rural areas even in the US still don't have reliable internet.
Your experience is not universal.
Clearly, Adobe is missing out on the lucrative 'rural graphic designer without internet' market.
LOL. So funny - thanks for a great start to my day
Don't be ignorant.. Talent is found everywhere.
Don't be arrogant. Businesses can't tailor every decision for every random niche case that might exist.
True, but photographers tend to go to those places and even far more remote places. If you take a laptop that has not registered this month, it is just a paperweight. It would piss me off to know that I could not edit in my free time just because Adobe's business model does not include me— A PHOTOGRAPHER!
Judging by the use of the term "rubbish", you might be British. Ask a wildlife photographer in the Outer Hebrides if this might affect him.
I repeat. Your experience is not universal.
what an American centric objection there are a lot of countries where reliable broadband is not available, not even to download it once!
Well, if it's constantly updating the software packages frequently, that could present a problem
I was reporting from Southeast Texas after Hurricane Rita. I was in an area with no electricity for 5 weeks (I know; hard to believe). I ran my laptop off an inverter in my car, transferred photos to my phone and drove until I got a signal to send them.
If my license had expired in the middle of that, I would have had to drive 100 miles for an internet connection.
I havent moved to the cloud yet, but knowing exactly what it will cost my business makes it easier to plan for. No more waiting to upgrade until my books are ready.
To those who will complain, $20/mo. Say you upgrade every 2 years. That is only $480. Cheaper than an upgrade.
I agree. I made the switch last year and it has never been better. Not only do we no longer have to pay the lump sum $1000 for each CS we buy, we can spread it out and pay less now!
My last PS upgrade was $199. Adobe CC is going to cost me an extra $281 for the same timetable.
Sorry, Adobe, but I will be keeping the current version for the foreseeable future. And searching for alternatives in the meantime.
I don't know if there is much competition for Photoshop other than GIMP. Which is a pale comparison. But if it's just for RAW editing there is still Lightroom, Capture One, maybe another?
I still have to understand why in Europe the same software costs 65% more than the US.
I wonder if this time they will blame the taxes or some similar bullshits assuming that their clients are idiots and they can download a software from the "cloud" but not being able to go to xe.com and check the conversion rate.
Now is a great opportunity for other developers. With Adobe jacking up their prices and forcing their users at gunpoint to "upgrade or die", I can see where some people will be willing to jump ship. With a guaranteed revenue stream, I suspect just a little complacency will creep in. Where's the incentive to innovate if you've got your customers backed into a corner with no option other than take it or leave it.
If someone could have produced a PS rival by now, they would have. The explosion in digital photography would have spurred it long ago.
Instead, you have... Gimp. Appropriately named and not even close to a substitute product.
while I agree that Gimp is not even in the same ball park as PS, it survives and is developed with donations and distributed for free.....I see a lot of donations in it's future!
I agree with Richard Thomas, I'll stick with CS6 for right now, and in the meantime look for other programs. Pixelmator is a program I have been trying out in leu of PhotoShop and even though it doesn't have all the capabilities PhotoShop does, it manages for what I do. The real challenge is Illustrator due to me using it on a daily basis. I'm a big computer advocate, but I trust my computer more than I trust cloud computing.
The software is downloaded to your computer and acts no different than a "regular" copy. The "cloud" is really just for storage and integration for preferences and their other pieces of software. The software itself checks for activation every month to make sure your copy is authorized.
Cant wait to buy my CS6 4 Life' t-shirt!
I don't understand why people don't understand that the creative cloud isn't the same as cloud computing. Yes you need a computer connection to start the subscription and download the applications you want but it is the exact same as the regular CD based version, it resides completely on your system, and is as reliable as your computer is. I moved to the creative cloud from the boxed version when it started and haven't looked back. I have every app in the master suite plus, for the price of one of the smaller creative suites upgrade price per year. If this is my business ( and it is) then it is a really good deal. As far as finding a replacement, maybe one or two but the entire suite and with the interoperability of Adobe, good luck.
Sorry but I don't want to rent my software. I want to buy it, then use it when I want, and upgrade if I feel like it. I don't want to be forced into continued payments if I don't want to upgrade to the next iteration. No amount of logic will ever change that I would prefer buying my software. CC should be an option, not a genocide of purchase.
Don't worry, hackers will come to the rescue.
CS6 FTW. Shoot TIFF on Nikon or convert Canon CR2 to TIFF in DPP for future compatibility. This is War!
I have the feeling that nowadays in the software and games industry, it is a type of trend to annoy customers.
Adobe wants to go into the same wrong sale and marketing policy as the game industry...a la Blizzard with WOW, Diablo3 or EA with Sim City! If you listen carefully to the customer you should know that we don't want that!
I think Adobe released the CC version a few months after CS6, to test the acceptance of the new marketing strategy. The CS6 will be additionally still supported. If customers accept this model of payment, I think the version of Adobe CS6 is the last software on a DVD! If NOT then we have a good chance to see a CS7 version next year! That would also fit well in the release cycle of the CS.
As a protest we should go into the distance from this kind of sales and pricing policy in order to show the software industry that we don't want this!!!
Otherwise it gets to the point that we have to pay for each start of the pc or a program.
I think you may have the wrong impression of what Creative Cloud is. The software works no different than a regular install except for the fact that you need an internet connection ONCE a month to check your license. It's not the same DRM you're used to in video games. As for CS7, don't hold your breath. Adobe is saying that it's "time for a change" http://www.adobe.com/cc/letter.html
Straight from Adobe: "You will need to be online when you install and license your software. If you have an annual membership, you'll be asked to connect to the web to validate your software licenses every 30 days. However, you'll be able to use products for 180 days even if you're offline.""
I know exactly what the Creative Cloud is and about the install procedure and licensing intervals!
You misunderstood me!
The big problem with this payment policy is, that you DON'T buy a product!
YOU RENT IT! For example: After five or six years if you have no interest to pay for the CC then the software is gone. You don't have access to the program and your projects. Instead with the classical way to buy a license I have this for my lifetime and I can do with this what I want! I can sell the license to other guys. This is with the CC impossible!!!
Let's see the last time I used my Adobe Premiere Pro CS3? It has been years, can't even remember. Will I ever use it again? Nope. When was the last time I used my Avid Express Pro software I paid $2,200 for? 2006. Will I ever use it again? Nope, does not work with anything I am using today. Do I use the Microsoft office 2003 or 2007 version software I bought today? Never.
I don't know about everyone else but In my business I move with the times and update my software and computers to stay on top of technology to offer my clients the best and to do the best job. I update my computer regularly and never use out of date software. I have stacks of software boxes from over the years that cost well in the tens of thousands of dollars easy. If I could have rented all that software at a lower price, I would have. For those that say, well, you should save money and not update as much. That is why I stay in business, because I make sure my business has the latest software and technology so I can do the best job possible. Now I could use old out of date computers and software and just offer average or just bad quality work to my clients, but that's not me. Doing it this way is why I am not one of the ones complaining about the cost of a $50 per month cloud membership fee that keeps me in business. Also this is business software, not for the average home user. That is why both PC and Mac's both come with basic software for pictures, creating docs, movie editing etc.
Sorry, but with 15 years of software in a storage closet, I don't see your point.
Not for nothing, but this argument: " Now I could use old out of date computers and software and just offer
average or just bad quality work to my clients, but that's not me." is horrific. The software was once good enough to produce output which paid your bills and afford you whatever.. but now that it is slightly out of date, this will make your work average looking or of bad quality? That speaks more to the users skills, rather than the software.
It's another story when we are forced into updates because the company simply isn't supporting the software anymore, like in the case of MS Office or iTunes etc.. at those points it's when the hardware topology has changed so much that it forces the software manufacturers to recode their work in order to assimilate.
Edit: Just for clarification, my argument is geared more towards photographers using PS, rather than graphic illustrators or web coders etc. The tech used by the latter does truly need to stay up to date in order to change with the trends of the times.
Douglas, you are right on with your comments.
Photography is my hobby at this point. I am working at learning how to use CS6 to it's fullest, but I don't use it on a daily basis. I started on CS4, skipped CS5 and upgraded to CS6. I purchased my first copy of Photoshop from the University book store for around $100 and upgraded to CS6 for around $100. If I had rent CC at the current prices, then it would have cost me over $720 during that three year period instead of the $200. Starting out in photography, that is a significant cost for me and many other photographers like myself. Every dollar that I can save in the software purchases, helps me to purchase other needed gear for my hobby that I hope to one day turn into a thriving business. I don't have the money to throw around like Just Saying does.
What about Lightroom? Will that go to the cloud? I hope not.
I highly doubt it. It's included in Creative Cloud but the software alone isn't expensive enough to justify their $20/month per app fee.
I'm still surprised at the amount of bitterness towards Creative Cloud. A boxed copy of Photoshop retails for $700. A single Creative Cloud license for Photoshop is $20/month. That means it would take almost 3 years before you'd reach the retail cost of Photoshop. How about the Master collection? It would take you 4.5 years of Creative Cloud membership before you could buy one Master edition of Creative Suite ($50/month). Would it be fair to say that most of us update at least every two years? You're still spending the same money even if you waited to upgrade but you're getting the latest and great software with full support for updates throughout that time. So what's the difference? This is a professional piece of software that most of us use and make our living from. I think most of the people who are upset either don't buy the software to begin with or only use it on certain occasions which is fine but there are many alternatives (at least on OS X) that are far cheaper and get the job done for basic tasks.
It's annoying for a few reasons. I bought PS CS5 at 700 bucks when it was released in April 2010, and then 199 for the CS6 upgrade in May of 2012, because I found the new features compelling enough, and it was 199. If I switch to CC (which is a "might" at this point) I'll HAVE to spend 360 dollars over the next two years, without any decision-making capability as to whether or not any of the new features are worth it to me at the time of spending that money. If the features in PS CC were in a CS7 version, I'd probably buy it for 199, but not for some unknown financial commitment. I think CC is a great OPTION for people, but being told "It's this way, or screw you." with no way of knowing what the pricing will be in two years is very uncomfortable. Your math is great for new users, but for legacy users, it's a railroad.
I agree it would cost 700 every upgrade if upgrades did not exist, they retail for a lot less. Also not all of us upgrade to every version, so all of a sudden it's not so
convenient add the fact that in Europe it's about 25 Euro a month($32) for a single app and 62($81) for the suite now it's really not convenient. I wander why American company's have such a hard time with currency conversions
The problem here is being forced into a monthly fee with no alternatives. Macromedia was their only competition with freehand and fireworks, and they bought them out and killed them. They now have a monopoly on the market and are using that to force us into a monthly subsidy of adobe. If memory serves, monopoly practices are illegal in this country. Only time will tell if someone will take on this behemoth in court.
I think proving that this is monopolistic would be a tough sell since so many other software industries use a similar business model. And this model doesnt necessarily discourage competition. I think if Adobe came out and said everyone had to sign 3 year plans they might get in some trouble. But having a month to month option makes it pretty easy to jump ship to a competing product.
Also Adobe doesn't have a monopoly. They have most of the market share but there is tons of competition out there such as OnOne, CaptureOne, Aperture, Gimp, etc for image editing. Soundtrack, ProTools, Audacity for audio. Final Cut for video. Coda, BBedit for code authoring. I think the only thing unique to Adobe is that they offer a full suite of creative tools in one place.
This might be helpful for some also.
http://i.imgur.com/ucLsZcA.jpg
An here is another assumption........that the price will not go up over the next five years, we will see
yeah, Adobe would never raise the price once they have the market cornered
And I would stipulate that $700 for Photoshop was already too expensive!
I personally prefer paying more for the license per the "now" old days. ,Abe this will grow on me by cs8. But for now I will stick to cs6