Photography news and tips for the hobbyist or seasoned pro
The start of Adobe’s demise
Last year Adobe Systems Incorporated announced something big. Adobe products are the industry standard when it comes to digital image editing. Photoshop CS is a flagship product that leads the market in image editing software. Photoshop and/or Lightroom is used by almost all serious photographers and image creators. Myself, I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop since it version 4.0 was released in 1996. I’ve been through the many versions and happily upgraded to the next version or skipped a few versions if I didn’t think it was worth it.
It looks like a big explosion… but of what?
The choice is gone
Adobe has taken choice away from us. Instead of choosing what version to spend your money on (ie. I skipped CS4 because it wasn’t much of an upgrade from CS3) they have created a subscription system called “Adobe Creative Cloud”. They are using the “cloud” terminology that’s prevalent in the tech and computing world as marketing. What it really boils down to is a subscription system.
Retention vs. Innovation
Once they got you subscribing where’s the drive to innovate? It’s now a factor of “retention” instead of “innovation” … I can’t remember the last time my electricity company innovated. I can remember the last time they decided to raise their rates.
Examples
-If you have CS6 and want to upgrade you will need to subscribe to the creative cloud.
-If you subscribe to the creative cloud and create content on this version, then decide later to stop your subscription your files will lose some features (i.e. layers)…. unless of course you subscribe again! ( Cha-ching$ for Adobe).
Conclusion
What does this boil down to? Well it just means Adobe will now have a steady stream of income to secure its financial future. What it also means is now that they’ve got your money they could care less about innovation. The main driving force is now retention. I’ve started researching different types of software and will post something about that once I find a suitable replacement.
Hey Adobe. Congratulations. You’ve now put yourself in the same class as my cable TV, sewage and electricity provider.
Other links about this topic:
everythings cloud and subscription shit. everything i do for work is subscription based now. software life-cycles dictated by marketing and not the software engineering life cycle. features getting taken away in newer generations.Comments…
Innovation comes from competition, which adobe doesn’t have much of. But they still manage to innovate. I don’t know why people are complaining about this since the new CC series is blowing me away with new features.Comments…
As an I.T. Guy, I love the subscription model, or software as a service (Saas). It cuts down on time and costs.Comments…
as an IT guy, is it not slowly taking your job away (Depends where you are in the IT side of things) and do you not hate the lack of control from something like drop box? shit like that and the consumerization of it all is the bane of the old scComments…
Technology is always growing, if something takes my job away, it gives me more time to focus on the next thing. Managing email servers was not a highlight in my life anyway. If the lack of control is a problem then I don’t mind rolling my own.Comments…
Good points by both of you. I have and other have calculated that if you occasionally do an upgrade to CS (i.e. every other version) then CS is cheaper than the new subscription.Comments…
When did you have a choice? If adobe decided that they want to charge real sweat, blood and tears, mailed to them in a petri dish, would you still buy their products? I’m sure you would… Remember, they do have the best products….Comments…
When did I have a choice? Like I mentioned it before. I chose to buy the next version or not to buy the next version. With a subscription you are fed the next version. For instance, the crop tool in PS…Comments…
[…] a firm believer that after switching to the Creative Cloud model, Adobe would stop innovating. I even wrote a blog post about it. Well, I can easily say, I was wrong. I take it all back. I am confident that creativity and […]