Adobe No Longer Selling Perpetual Licensing for New Products

[George Reis]

This week Adobe announced the next versions of their products, now named CC (for Creative Cloud), rather than CS#. These products (Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, etc.) will only be available by subscription. Here is a quote from their FAQ page:

Can I purchase a perpetual license for the new Creative Cloud (CC) desktop applications that were announced in May 2013?
No. The new CC versions of the desktop applications are available only through Creative Cloud offerings for individuals, teams, and enterprise. We do not have any current plans to release future CC tools outside Creative Cloud.

However, for organizations such as government agencies and educational institutions that are unable to deploy cloud services, we offer Creative Cloud desktop apps through a Creative Cloud Desktop Applications subscription for government agencies, and via the Adobe Education Enterprise Agreement (EEA) for educational institutions through the channel.

My question is how will this affect your ability to upgrade (or even continue to use) Adobe's products? The pricing is reasonable ($20 a month for a single product, $50 a month for the entire suite), but if you stop subscribing, you no longer have the software. I think this will work out well for some agencies, and cause problems for others. I'm curious as to what everyone here thinks of this model, and how it affects your ability to continue using Adobe's products.

Feel free to contact me off-list <reis@imagingforensics.com>. I may create a survey, but first wanted to get some feedback. Also, I'm asking out of curiosity, and as an Adobe products user, and to help answer questions when I teach workshops. I may pass the info along to someone at Adobe as well - but I think everyone knows that I'm not an employee of Adobe, don't get paid by Adobe (although I wish they would), etc.

There is more information here http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/ ... op-cc.html.

Thanks,

George

[Steve Everist]

Agencies will have to examine the costs and see how the pricing lines up with how much they've previously spent. However, purchasing may be an issue vs "leasing." It may not mesh with agency policies and procedures. Some agencies outfit all of their employees with PS, while others may only have one computer. Working in an office where all of the LPE's use PS daily, I can't imagine the workflow changing. However we just upgraded to PS CS6 and may not have to make that decision for several years.

Personally, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I have one of the CS4 suites. I use Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat with some regularity. The other programs aren't necessary for me. I bought them when I took a class at a local college a few years ago at a great price. My thoughts were to wait until CS7 came out and consider upgrading. Now I'm trying to figure out what I need to do, since I do give some training and should have a somewhat current version. CS6 Design Standard Suite would work for me, since I really don't need PS Extended, but upgrade pricing doesn't exist for anything older than CS5. So the cost is prohibitive. I could look into taking another class at the college, where I can get this version, and then hold off for a few more years to see how Creative Cloud shakes out. But the cost to subscribe to three apps, would pretty much push me into the suite subscription anyhow.

[ER]

I've been just settling for CS2 for awhile. I guess this is what will finally push me to leave PS behind and learn the ins and outs of GIMP.