Inspiring

Question

Boycott Creative Cloud?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
May 7, 2013
43 replies
100438 views

If you haven't heard, CS6 is the last CS version. From now on, you have to rent your applications via the Creative Cloud. I don't like the new subscription model. I have bought every CS upgrade since version 1, but it looks like CS6 is the end for me, even if it means keeping an old computer around just to run CS6 applications.

Perhaps Adobe would change its mind in a few months if most everyone avoided signing up for the subscription. In any case, they've created a real opportunity for competitors.

This topic has been closed for replies.

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aprilr68763931

Participant

Plain and simple......Adobe lost sight of its loyal customers. I, too, have been using Adobe Creative Suite for years. I still have it on an older computer, but was intending to add it to my new laptop. Now that they have switched to a subscription app, it is a no go for me. I don't use Adobe for hobby purposes. It would seem that they would have considered their loyal customers before asking them to pay for a subscription that requires them to pay 2X, 5X or 10X the price of a boxed copy over the life of their subscription. Sad! I am not buying it, and I will encourage my colleagues to avoid purchasing it as well. There are many other alternatives that are more affordable. They could have even increased the price of the boxed copy as an alternative.

Terri Stevens

Legend

Sorry your dissatisfied April, but time moves on in the evolution of every product and there is a market for the features you don't appear to need. Do you blame Microsoft and Apple for changing their operating systems as they are equally responsible for legacy Adobe products beginning to be unsupported on new computers. Your costings for the subscription model are way out you know. You say the subscription requires you to pay 2X, 5X and 10X the price of a boxed copy over the life of a subscription. If we totally discount the cost of upgrades to shrink rapped products and consider retail price only with Photoshop

2X =$2000 based on CS6 the last non subscription version available You could pay subscriptions for 17 years before costing you that much. 5X is equivalent to 42 years of subscription and 10x is 83 years of subscription. I know of no business where there is zero investment in the tools of the trade, which appears to be what you are asking for. The reality is Adobe is a commercial entity and if they don't replace old products with new ones to generate revenue they will go out of business. Subscription generates a steady income and allows products formerly costing thousands to buy to be bought by the masses for $20 a month. It works I'm afraid can 10 million subscribers all be wrong?

UtahRugbyGuy

Participant

I 100% Agree a BOYCOTT is in order.

I have been an Adobe user since waaaaaay before Apple and Adobe were cool. Around 1990 is when I started as a graphic designer. I have given them so much of my hard earned money and in return, they have helped me make a living for my family. Part of being a freelance designer is that we have to work for every penny we make and sometimes there are many projects and sometimes there are months between while we hunt for new clients. I have had to rely on waiting until I get a nice project before I could shell out the money to upgrade to the next version of CS but I have managed and it hasn't always been easy. With a monthly subscription, if I am having a couple slow months, then what? I just get locked out of my app and the ability to work for a couple months? And if I'm locked out and can't pay my monthly fees, then how will I be able to finish a new project to pay for them to be reinstated? It's like they're creating a major problem for designers to be able to pay for their tools. If they don't reverse this majorly idiotic decision, I will definitely be making the switch to a competitor and the new dollars from me and other defectors will give the competition the funds it needs to make apps that equal or maybe even surpass Adobe products and [inappropriate content removed by moderator]

Save Mandalore! This is the way.

Terri Stevens

Legend

Although I appreciate many of the points you have made are true, there is more chance of Donald Trump being voted in as the next President of Mexico than Adobe dropping the subscription model. Why ? Because it is enormously successive and attracts people who would not entertain the prospect of paying $1000 to buy Photoshop outright or $7000 for the whole of the creative suite plus $2000 every 12 months for upgrades.

Creative Cloud simply makes the software affordable for jobbing designers. Over 7 million subscriptions have been taken out now. I don't know the division between individual applications and the entire suite , but for sure the Photographic plan must account for many of those millions. If we say the average is $30 per month then that's $210 million /month in revenue and $2.52 billion per annum. Why in the world would they shrink their user base by once again offering high priced perpetual licenses when income of that size is on offer.

Steven L. Gotz

Inspiring

Why in the world would they shrink their user base by once again offering high priced perpetual licenses when income of that size is on offer.

Terry,

I signed up for the Creative Cloud when it was first made available because I had never bought any Adobe software since the first Premiere Pro. I was a beta tester up until CS3 so I got it for free, and then I dropped out of the program during CS4 due to an illness. Quite a few years later, I came back to video editing and added photography. So CC made sense to me since I was used to having the Master Collection and did not want to put out a large sum (over $2500) and then have to justify upgrades as a part time pro and an almost full time hobbyist.

That said, I can certainly come up with a reason for them to supply an exit strategy. I have supported such a strategy since the beginning. Yes, I am an Adobe Fanboy, but I completely understand people's fears about winding down their need for the software and wanting to use it only occasionally. But $50 per month (and a lot more in many other countries) can be burdensome for a part time user. Or, worse yet, a user who has changed to another program and sometimes needs to go back into old projects to satisfy customer needs.

Yes, it is possible to sign up for a month. But owning the software and locking down a computer with an OS and keeping it off of the Internet is a perfectly sensible desire for many people.

If Adobe made it possible to buy a certain release, let's say the current version of CC, right now, at some high, but relatively reasonable price, and gave a discount proportional to the amount of years that the customer had been paying the subscription, then people who otherwise might have dropped out completely, might be willing to add money to Adobe's bottom line one last time.

Take me for example. I am retired. I am getting older. I might, at some point lose the ability to hold a camera. Does that mean that I have to pay $10/month from the bed in my nursing home just to see my Lightroom catalog?

I can reduce the price of my auto insurance by telling the insurance company that I drive my car less than 100 miles per month. That way, an old pickup truck, that sits in the garage most of the time, is still covered when I need it for something.

Adobe could set something up that limited users to a certain amount of hours per month, with carryover, like your minutes in some Smartphone plans. And if you go over, you can then buy more hours. It would only apply to users who have paid for enough months to qualify as "good customers". Or maybe even "loyal customers".

I honestly believe that this type of thing could keep a few users around to help fill Adobe's treasury. It is not for constant users, but it could be an exit strategy, a retirement plan of sorts. Not only would it be fair, but it could likely be profitable.

artofzootography.com

Ed.Macke

Inspiring

Here's what I don't get... Both the subscription and purchase models have some compelling arguments in their favor so why doesn't Adobe simply offer both? You have happy customers all around, and you get to market yourself as a flexible company giving customers a choice. They're doing it with Lightroom 6 / CC, why not the rest of CC?

Clearly the subscription model is working for Adobe, and that's great. But why alienate your loyal customers who, for whatever reason, don't like the subscription model?

M

Mike WickhamAuthor

Inspiring

I agree. I own every version of CS. I always upgraded. I imagine that

most who refuse the subscription model, like me, would continue to spend

money on upgrades. We are willing to buy new features. We are just not

willing to rent them. If you ever stop paying with CC, for any reason,

your software turns off-- not just the cool latest features, but ALL of

them. No Photoshop for you! At least those of us with CS6 still have

access to probably 99.8% of everything that Photoshop CC can do.

It has now been two years since Adobe discontinued upgrades to Creative

Suite. When I look at how I have saved $1200 by not agreeing to

subscribe to Creative Cloud just to rent a few new features (most of

which I wouldn't even use), I think Adobe probably did me a big favor.

rcraighead

Legend

You make some very valid points, Mike. I was VERY frustrated when paying for CC and finding myself a "BETA" tester instead and going back to CS5 to do my work.

My biggest concern is, at some point current operating systems will no longer run CS5 or CS6. I am already running an old OS just to stay compatible with CS5. This limits my options with other software I'd like to upgrade. The writing is on the wall.

gener7

Community Expert

Happy Second Anniversary to the "Boycott Creative Cloud" thread!

Steven L. Gotz

Inspiring

As the number of people subscribing to the Creative Cloud grows every day and those of us who have subscribed are able to take advantage of the new features.

I'll never understand why people come to a company web site and leave messages about how terrible the company is in a User-To-User forum where is does absolutely no good.

Looking at the rate that the stock price has increased in the last two years sure shows Adobe is suffering. The price has only gone from around $44 to around $76. How sad for them.

artofzootography.com

Jeff_Know1

Inspiring

I'm sure the stock price increases have nothing to do with another round of buying back their own shares called 'stock buybacks'.

Nope... I'm sure the stock price totally reflects the real market value </sarc>

Adobe Announces Program to Repurchase $2.0 Billion of Stock by End of FY2017

When you buy all the cheap stocks yourself... of course the average stock price is going up.

And just in case you only focus on the "end of fiscal year 2017" part for this round of stock buybacks, "Adobe said authority of its previous buyback program of up to $2 billion through fiscal 2015 has been exhausted."

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kevind46997259

Participant

Yes boycott adobe products. I'm certainly not signing up. May appear to be cheap now but in the long run they will start up their price gouging practices as they have done so expertly in the past. Adobe has been ripping off Australian users for years by charging almost double the US price for its products. Other companies are developing alternatives and should be supported e.g. Affinity photo is in beta at the moment. Adobe should bear in mind one word: Quark! Hopefully their arrogance will lead them to the same demise.

Multifun5

Participating Frequently

I'm boycotting :-)

I tried Adobe creative cloud for about 2 years, then realized that I had wasted close to $1000 on programs that I wasn't even using. Normally I would upgrade as needed, maybe spending a thousand or so every 3 or 4 years. I had one job that required a more recent version of Flash, and Adobe wouldn't sell it to me even though I had just spent thousands on the Premium Pro bundle and 4 previous versions of Flash. Any equity in the company you may have had in the forms of upgrades goes out the window.

The introductory price of $35/month was manageable, but $50/month when business is bad (and the economy is quite bad right now for me) is not good. Also, they can raise the price whenever they want ( I don't trust them at all) and I don't see why Adobe would keep improving the products if they're getting a steady cash flow regardless. This is a great deal for Adobe and a horrible deal for customers. It gives Adobe all the power of a monopoly. It's abusive and we should all try to work around it somehow. For me, all the programs I have from the Premium bundle will be fine until Apple upgrades their systems or chips such that Adobe's programs won't work. At that point I will have to find a workaround ;-)

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rkelly0137

Participating Frequently

I can't say that I actually looked at every page in this thread. But I'm going to be disappointed if someone didn't use Photoshop to composite an image of people in a picket line boycotting Adobe CC and post it up. Maybe, a picket line in the clouds?

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paul_tech

Participating Frequently

Affinity Designer doesn’t even come close to Adobe Illustrator!

Multifun5

Participating Frequently

After almost 2 years and almost $1000 spent I can say that this was a complete waste of money, and is an arrogant, sneaky power grab by Adobe. I've spent many thousands of dollars over the years to purchase licenses and my Adobe Production Premium will be my last Adobe product for the forceable future after my year expires. I just had it out with a customer support guy, after spending over 30 minutes just trying to connect to representative on Adobe's incredibly slow site, and was told that I can't even halt now the auto -renewal that occurs in 3 months. I have to mark my calendar and keep my eyes glued to my emails so I know when I can finally cancel, otherwise they charge me a hefty fee. ARROGANT!!!! DISHONEST!!!! Please, please, someone start competing with this company and put them out of business (and this from a a customer of 15 years). As to KuttyJoe above, yes, Photoshop is a nice product, but there is a limit to what a customer should put up with. My car is nice but I'm not going to pay 3x more for it.

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SteveJobs1492

Participant

I will never pay a Cent to Adobe for CC. Thanks to the work of some honorable people this really isn't necessary anyway. Adobe is an Indian Company now..and Indian Tech Support is the norm..and they don't consider it Out Sourcing. Personally, I refuse to talk to anyone from India about anything, they think they understand the English that they speak, which is simply not true. This is the end for Adobe. Everyone knows it...with the exception of Adobe. they are so out of touch that they are beyond reason and logic. To hell with them.

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BarbVar

Participant

I wouldn't say there is any real substitute for Photoshop or Illustrator. It would be nice if Corel seized the moment and chose to give Adobe greater competition but they haven't done so for a decades now and I doubt they will. Corel and Adobe used to be pretty equal to each other at one time, (maybe 1990??).

I'm not putting down Corel - I own their software, too, as theirs can do somethings that Adobe's can't.

I, like many, resent the rental idea and am currently boycotting it, (my CS6 suite is just fine for my needs - I will see what happens next year or the year after). And who knows- some new company might come out with even better products than Adobe's and sell them outright. I always root for the new kid on the block when the old kid gets too big for it's britches and no longer listens to consumers needs, (did for Adobe at one time, too).

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Baniita

Participant

...I have a feeling it's a preventative measure against piracy.

But just because pirates are ripping them off doesn't mean they should rip paying customers off.

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zippity do da

Participating Frequently

Nope thats not the case the cloud has already been pirated. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57590213-83/that-was-quick-adobes-creative-cloud-already-pirated/

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uhanepono

Participating Frequently

Something fishy going on? ... Here is something interesting. 750 layoffs in 2011, another 750 imminent. Most in the US. Looks like Adobe is eating it's own flesh to keep it's numbers up and show earnings in leau of growth. never a good sign. If I had stock I would bail right around now. Odd, CS6 was such a great version upgrade from CS5.1 as were the upgrades to CS%.1. I wonder who's left managment (or the boaard?) and who came on board to create such distopia so quickly? It can't be cracks and pirates as they have been a bane since the beginning never affected the corp.s robust creativivity and steady growth before.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/08/adobe-layoffs/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/adobe-to-layoff-750-as-part-of-restructuring-plan_n_1082875.html

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