[Locked] No perpetual licenses are you serious?

Recap of the first 3 weeks of this discussion.

(The word 'Adobe' occurred 3 times more often than the 2nd entry 'cloud' and was removed for legal reasons clarity.)

I really don't understand why this is such a big deal to so many people.  This service Adobe offers make their products insanely affordable for a great many people who could not afford it previously.  Adobe has some of the best software in the industry and the amount of piracy surrounding it is staggeringly high.  I suspect that this change in direction will curb a lot of that abuse and allow more people to legally use their products.  I have happily used this service for about eight months now and I'm very pleased with it.  I think this is a good business direction for Adobe to be taking, and I have nothing but praise to offer them.

Just wanted to add my voice to the many others objecting to the new Adobe subscription plan. I have no objection in principle to software subscriptions, but this one is bad for many reasons, mainly because is so inflexible, but also because it seems to be a large price hike for many (if not most) users.

David

Adobe has built a solid and hidden stratagy to keep the Traing people and the staff on board with this silly concept the Creatvie clowwn, it is to offer stock optionss to staff and vendors, Why now d they offer options why not 2 years ago why not 8 years ago. They have not offerd an option since 2003

read this

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/pdfs/2012_Proxy_Statement.pdf

Also all the folks outside Adobe cheering for th CC are eligable for the stock Options as well.

Eligibility. Under the 2003 Plan, we may grant awards to employees (including executive officers) and

consultants of Adobe, our subsidiary corporations or other affiliated entities of Adobe, and members of our Board.

Pursuant to applicable tax law, we may grant incentive stock options only to employees; however, we may grant

nonstatutory stock options, stock appreciation rights, stock bonuses, stock purchase rights, RSUs, performance shares

and performance units to any eligible participant. As of February 2, 2012, we had a total of 9,776 employees and

consultants and eight non-employee directors who would be eligible to be granted awards from the 2003 Plan. 

I've been using Adobe products since 1995 - same as Mattrman. It's a shock that they actually did it but not something that surprises me. When I first saw that they were going to this cloud thing...I thought, "it's only a matter of time..."

To me, this is so completely annoying. However, my company can afford to do the purchase and so, it's not problem for me personally. I just feel sorry for all those Designers/Developers...that only use the software occasionally that can't really afford this sort of commitment. $50/month? Wow...

Perhaps this is the catylist for some group to offer open source solutions that catch on. Adobe, remember html5 and Steve Job's attack on Flash? Well, just image it all going "open source..."

Well, one can dream...for now...we must comply with our master's demands.

Lord Adobe is serious about raising profits and in turn the share price! Thats all adobe is looking at. The bottom line is the almighty Dollar peso, yen ero ........

What a kick in the teeth to Adobe's long standing customer base.   I have been upgrading every other generation since Photoshop 4.0 in 1998 and I'm on CS6 now which looks to be my last Adobe purchase.  I'm an amateur photographer that can't stand the seriously dumbed down/crippled versions of "consumer" products Adobe put out through the years.  Why they couldn't put out a "true" Photoshop lite with the same interface but with less "pro" features is beyond me rather than a totally different and majorly crippled interface.  

People who are able to use Photoshop are not a dumb at math as Adobe's exec's must think.   I'm an engineer that uses Photoshop as a hobby.  They have conjured up these example that show how they are "saving consumers money" but everyone is doing their own figuring and realizing that it is going to cost them a lot more money.   One year come-on price for existing users for ~$120 with the price almost guaranteed to rise to $240 and likely more per year.  That means if I upgraded about every 3 years like in the past the "upgrade price" in the future is going to be $720 (or likely more) rather than ~$200 as it has been in the past.

Then imagine what will happen to the price once Adobe has the new CC (credit card) model in place and users hooked.    My Photoshop CS6 at least is new and I have a few years to see what happens and what to use next.  Hopefully Adobe's competitors will see this as an opportunity to make better competing products.

I'm not sure how big a part of the market I represent so maybe Adobe doesn't care.   I paid for my upgrades as I went along and I am definitely not planning on buying into CC so unless something changes, CS6 will be the last money I send to Adobe.    My casual observation is that the users on various forums are about 10 to 1 against the CC only model.   Hopefully Adobe is finding this new model working for them about as effectively as the "new business model" worked for J.C. Penny last year. 

My main beef with Creative Cloud is the upgrades and not the cost (even though it will cost me 40% more than upgrading each year). Why does Adobe need to upgrade anymore when they have us locked into a subscription? Yes, obviously to stay above the competition, but let's not be foolish and claim that Adobe has ANY competition. With perpetual licenses Adobe was forced to make MAJOR revisions to it's software each cycle to ensure the customers will upgrade the next year (and most years they didn't, so most years I didn't upgrade). Yes, they have pushed some minor tweaks in their Cloud service, but let's not be naive, Adobe knows they need to do very little to stay ahead in the industry. Now that they have your money locked into a perpetual subscription, they will do LESS upgrades and never MORE. They want to make as much money with as little work. Who doesn't?

Right now their only competition is themsleves. DON'T SUBSCRIBE, you are only hurting yourself by locking into an inferior product with no incentive for improvement.

We can use wayback machine and verify Adobe statements and understatements.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130424125958/http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html   (accessed: 25 april 2013)

Are there any unique benefits that come with my paid memberships? Yes, as a member of Creative Cloud, you get many benefits that you do not get when you purchase a traditional shrinkwrapped product: An ever-expanding membership that provides access to Adobe's latest products, services, features, and workflows as soon as they are available. You no longer have to wait 12, 18, or 24 months for the latest innovations. Access to both the Mac OS and Windows® versions of the desktop applications and the ability to install them on your primary computer and one backup computer. So, if you have a Mac at home and a PC at work, you can install your applications on both as long as they are not running at the same time. See the product license agreements page for more information. Access to any language version in which the CS6 and other desktop applications are available. Unlike owning the traditional licensed version of a Creative Suite product, Creative Cloud membership gives you the freedom and flexibility to choose whichever language works best for you in any given application. 20GB of cloud storage space on www.creativecloud.com and file syncing to be able to access your work on any device. Access to online services that are not available through the desktop products alone. Administrative tools for centralized license purchase and management, workgroup features for greater collaboration, increased storage capacity (100GB), and expert services.‡

O.K this is great benefit. Fortunatelly in this FAQ Adobe do not mention about plan to discontinue traiditional licensing model. According to this point is a six arguments to buy membership. Discontinuation Creative Suite software product line is not listed in this FAQ.

O.K., we are waiting for next realease Adobe Creative Suite.

Do customers who buy traditional software licenses for CS6 get early access to new features? Early access to these features is an exclusive benefit available only to paying Creative Cloud members through special editions of the desktop software.

O.K. Adobe. I can wait 1, 12 or 24 months to next release Creative Suite, gain upgrade to CS6.5/7.0/7.5 and retarded access to new features. According to quoted FAQ Creative Cloud is more attractive, more actual but perpetual licences are also good CHOICE.

"So Adobe decided to ship major milestone releases of Adobe Creative Suite software approximately every two years, with mid-cycle releases that incorporate the most critical features customers need in the interim years. The first mid-cycle release is Creative Suite 5.5, and it addresses these challenges." - David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager Adobe Systems (may 2011) http://www.adobe.com/inspire-archive/may2011/articles/article1/index.html?PID=2159997

"CS5.5 is the first release in our transition to an annual release cycle, enabling us to deliver content creation innovations to our customers more frequently in response to the rapidly evolving marketplace. It also allows us to augment our business model to drive incremental revenue.  In addition to the perpetual license model we’ve always offered, we now offer a new Subscription Edition with CS5.5 that provides a lower upfront price point for customers." - Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems (6/21/2011 12:40 PM) http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/pdfs/Q211_Script_FINAL_Draft_FOR_RELEASE.pdf?PID=2159997

How many cycle and mid-cycle releases Creative Suite software we have counted from the "first mid-cycle realese" - Creative Suite 5.5?

Adobe is obligated to continue Creative Suite product line. Any big change in model licensing requires prior anouncement.

Can we trust Adobe?