It's not Creative Suite anymore... news from Adobe

[David Dwyer]

Anyone from outside the US thought about purchasing the PrePaid card?

Amazon.com: Adobe Creative Cloud Membership 12 Month Pre-Paid Membership Product Key Card: Software

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Gabe Strong

With the old approach, there was a big need to improve the software or people
would not buy the upgrade. Now with this approach, they can 'trickle out' new improvements and
still keep people paying. So while FCP may not be a perfect solution, it will work for many of us.
I do my own motion graphics and I'm not an expert by any means....Motion is plenty to do what I
need.

Hi Gabe,
I see this complaint about the future of Creative Cloud lately; that innovation will slow down, etc. From where I sit, this is not the case at all. In fact, innovation is ramping up. We must continue to innovate to please our current customers, and to provide incentive for others to join the Creative Cloud.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Bryan McCullough

Anyone know how the CC works with machine installations?

Under CS I can install it on two machines and use them simultaneously. Will the same be true under the CC platform?

Under the former EULA, you can install the software on two computers, but were are only supposed to run one at a time.

Under the new EULA (which will be released with the software), you will be able to install it on two computers and run applications on both computers concurrently. Further, if you have more machines, you can install the software on them, and then activate and deactivate them as you like.

See the FAQ here: Adobe Creative Cloud ? FAQ

From the Getting Started section:
Yes, you can use Creative Cloud desktop applications on two computers at once, regardless of operating system, for the individual associated with the Creative Cloud membership. See the product license agreements page for more information.

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Marcus Durham

Adobe have clarified you can have two installs, but can't run them at the same time. Same arrangement as now basically.

Whoever said that was incorrect. You can now operate the software on two computers at the same time, see the FAQ here: Adobe Creative Cloud ? FAQ

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Sareesh Sudhakaran

I can use it on my mac and pc, and any other system I want, as long as I don't use it at the same time. I have no clue how Adobe will know I'm using it at the same time. Maybe they don't, but if they catch you they might terminate the agreement. That's a risk they're taking, which seems like a big risk.

You can use them at the same time with the new EULA coming out. See the FAQ "Getting Started" section which states you can do this: Adobe Creative Cloud ? FAQ

Thanks for your post. It was a fair, realistic and thoughtful viewpoint, in my opinion. I hope you will find that Creative Cloud works well for you.

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Giroud Francois

the problem is not to pay, but how to pay ?
do you have to charge your credit card every month, do you give Adobe rights to renew and charge your card unless you say stop. and if you have no credit card, or only a personal one and want to charge a company account ? can you purchase one year in advance ?

You can prepay for one year of membership when you purchase through a retailer or etailer (like Amazon). This gives you the same price as purchasing an annual plan directly from Adobe, but you pay up front instead of monthly.

From the Creative Cloud FAQ: Adobe Creative Cloud ? FAQ

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Denis Danatzko

What DOES concern me the most is if some erroneous CC update somehow slips through testing and a bad version, or one with a major bug...

Hi Dennis,
From what I understand, there will be multiple versions of each application available at various stages, so you can roll back to a previous version if need be.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin Monahan]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

About the only reason I can think of that the've gone this repeated/periodic cloud subscription verification route is to counteract software piracy - I can certainly understand that aspect. However, there must be a better way so that those of us who pay our way don't get gouged whilst still allowing those periodic checks - surely!

I just hope Adobe are listening - heck, perhaps Apple were not so bad after all - compared to this ;-)

While it may help that, there are numerous other reasons that Adobe has done this. Above all, we think it will create more advantages than drawbacks.

•You'll get updates to your favorite applications all year long, rather than just once a year at NAB time.

•If a new device or workflow were to come out, you'd get support for it much more quickly.

•As a business owner, you can write off 100% of the subscription price, while if you expensed it, you'd have a residual amount sitting around after depreciation has run out.

•You can use new applications to bring in new revenue to your business. For example, if you use After Effects, you could easily learn Edge Animate and sell HTML 5 compliant banners to media companies. You can host your own website and customer websites to save money, and to bring in revenue with Business Catalyst.

There are just a few that come to mind.

[Mark Wilson]

Add me to the now VERY LONG LIST of disgruntled long-term Adobe customers!

Here's why:

I own CS6 master collection. Over time my upgrade costs have been around $35.00 per month. For example, I used cs5 from December 1, 2010 until April 24, 2012 (17 months) when I upgraded to cs6 for 549.00 (via cs5.5 deal). That works out to 32.29 per month. The new price will be some kind of weighted average between 19.99 per month for the first year, and 49.99 (and likely up!) after that.

This really is quite a large increase in cost over time. Also, I don't feel that the value of the cs6 suite that I own is reflected in the current Adobe offerings. I know it has value, because I can continue to use it, but that is about as reassuring as a slowly sinking boat in the middle of the Ocean... time to start swimming :)

Hope that helps explain why there is so much "hysteria" on the net.

Mark Wilson

PS If I was a new user faced with paying 2600.00 for cs6 master, I can certainly see how 49.99 per month would be appealing. But I am not a new user, I am a long term loyal customer!

[Andy Wilkinson]

And that last sentence in your PS hits the nail on the head - as Apple found out. I'm a recent convert to Adobe from FCS but it seems some of the lessons of (very recent) history did not count for much in the Adobe boardroom...

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by David Dwyer

Anyone from outside the US thought about purchasing the PrePaid card?

Amazon.com: Adobe Creative Cloud Membership 12 Month Pre-Paid Membership Product Key Card: Software

There seems to be a bit of a price variation between countries.

Adobe Community: Adobe, when will you get your pricing structure in order?

No great surprise I guess given the differential in jean prices.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

There seems to be a bit of a price variation between countries.

Adobe Community: Adobe, when will you get your pricing structure in order?

No great surprise I guess given the differential in jean prices.

I wouldn't mind purchasing it from the USA and even paying the VAT but not sure the product would activate? No reason why it shouldn't?

[Bo Skelmose]

I have loved Premiere from the very start because it was so easy to use. Although I use premiere proffesionally, I dont produce so many programs that it can pay for the cloud solution - the price in Denmark is way above the US price. I will buy a AVID product and start to learn the use of this. That would also be a good thing because all the TV stations use AVID and I will then be able to edit on their systems. Guess some smartasses told Adobe that this was the way to go - I can tell: It is not....

[Trevor Dennis]

The CC arguments have been going in circles for days now, but the poster 'Conroy' made a point on the Adobe Photoshop forum that I'd not heard before, and one I thought particularly well made:

I bet a significant number of these customers only upgraded to the horrendously buggy CS6 because they were led to believe that they must do so if they wanted to remain on the upgrade path to a perpetually-licensed CS7 and beyond.

[Tim Kolb]

Overall, there isn't nearly as much hysteria here as some other places...

I think the ultimate vote will be taken with each user's wallet.

And...I doubt that Adobe went into this thinking they'd have 100% customer retention...if they were smart, they were planning on maybe a 50% signup rate relative to normal upgrade cycle traffic with maybe an 80% rate in a year. Big changes like this rarely cause immediate growth...

I tend to think about Discreet *edit, which was a solid editing application...probably 5 years ahead of it's time in some ways...and eventually the very loyal user base were quite satisfied...so satisfied that frequent upgrades weren't that interesting any more...and it was shut down as a product.

Supporting mature software applications previously sold isn't a business...it's a cost of doing business when you sell the application, not the maintenance.

If purchases of CS are primarily upgrades, the majority of those units are 30-40% of retail...and a significant portion of the user base then decides to upgrade every other release...or every third release...and now your revenue is getting a little limiting. Adobe has been working their tails off (at least from what I've seen in the video end of the business) to add whiz-bang tradeshow traffic-stopping features for 5 or 6 years now. After a while, it gets a little bloaty...but improving efficiency and speeding up responsiveness and file management doesn't make much of a tradeshow demo, so the resources get prioritized to the circus features as that's what gets the users to buy an upgrade.

Now...does this subscription system have its drawbacks? I would say so...

-Resellers can only sell the workgroup licenses, which are priced to drive any group directly to individual licenses, which seems odd to me. It's like the heave-ho Apple gave its resellers with FCPX, but with one last bone thrown their way.

-How will plugin developers keep up? The versioning is going to be a little fluid...hopefully the innovations will leave the SDK alone for practical periods...

-No mention is made of what happens if an application is simply discontinued...what if Adobe continues to change the plan as they did with Soundbooth...Flash Catalyst...On Location. If current apps are discontinued, it sounds like they will probably be available in the "cloud" to use in their last state for subscribers...but it isn't really stated anywhere that I've seen yet.

-I think it could have been implemented with customers having a bit more warning...which is the source of much of the panic in the streets at this point. the "Cloud" subscription was available, and I suspected they'd be heading this way, but I don't know if any of us saw the complete elimination of perpetual licenses coming this year.

But, while I am not without some concerns about the subscription system, one thing I am looking forward to is Adobe working on innovations that make the software faster, more efficient, and more intuitive...the fundamentals.

I'm sure they don't have a plan to drop the super-amazing magical improvements, but with the revenue less erratic and the pressure not being on for the one chance they have to prove value and produce revenue each year (or cycle), I'm looking forward to each application being able to settle in on release schedules that make sense for them instead of all of them trying to hit the same synchronous target date with vastly different additions/revisions...which does result in compromises being made in the state of readiness of some apps over others, etc.