Prepare to get billed monthly.
Today at their Max conference in LA, Adobe announced that they will be ditching all their boxed software and moving to the Creative Cloud starting June 17. Oh, and they killed Fireworks too!
While many attendees were expecting a release of CS7, instead Adobe announced they decided to ditch the “Creative Suite” name in favor of “Creative Cloud” which won’t have the traditional release numbers anymore.
Adobe says they will allow everyone who owns a license to CS3 and up to subscribe to Creative Cloud for $29.95 per month for a limited time. But prepare to start dishing out at least $19.99 per month to use the newest version of Adobe Illustrator CC if you’re looking to upgrade.
This is big news for Adobe. While it seems to me like somewhat of a risky business move, they now claim to have over half a million paying subscribers since the creative cloud was introduced last year. However, that is still a drop in the bucket considering their market share, but obviously enough to make the switch.
I personally don’t care to subscribe to any software at a monthly subscription. And judging by the amount of negative comments on all the tech blogs making this same announcement, it seems like other creative folks don’t either.
This seems like a very risky business move for Adobe. What do you think? Will you upgrade to Illustrator CC?
You can view the new features in Adobe Illustrator CC here.
Further Reading:
http://mashable.com/2013/05/06/adobe-ceo-interview-creative-cloud/
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/graphic-design/illustrator-cc-indesign-cc-preview/
Yeah….I have CS5. With my plugins. Im not changing that. If their server goes down or they are hacked we’re screwed. No thanks.
If the problem is software piracy, Adobe should try create registered community, and do some activity.
I agree, with all of the other comments. Adobe is strong arming their customers to keep paying, and paying, and paying through the nose on an endless hamster wheel (greedy). $50 a month for 12 months is $600 a year. $600 a year, every year? Really?? Disgraceful.
I remember when cable TV made it’s first moves to replace free TV. They promised hundreds of channels. People bought in and subscription viewing took over our screens. What they delivered was/is dumb, boring programing for the most part, countless repeats and irrelevant shows. I can count the channels I like on one hand (most available free) but I pay a lot every month to subsidize the repetitive brain numbing of America anyway.
This time I will not play along. This is a great opportunity for Adobe’s competitors. I used to use Corel’s photo software and liked it but they stopped developing for the Mac and I moved to Photoshop. If I were on Corel’s board (or any competitor) I would recognize a huge opportunity here to gain a lot of casual and professional new users.
Suppose you have CC. Suppose you have a important job to do and your internet connection goes wrong (not your fault).
Oops, CC stops your subscription and the program stops working. There goes the important job you could have done while waiting for the internet connection is restorted (could take several days).
Anyone at Adobe thought of that?
From my understanding and use of CC thus far, I don’t think you need an internet connection to use the programs. Once you’ve downloaded and installed CC to your computer, you can use it at your leisure without the need for the internet. The program will open and work accordingly. I think CC is great, especially for students or beginners just getting into the industry. There’s no need to spend thousands on purchasing the suites.
never ever. i will go on with the current suite how long it needs and after i do a switch to sketch up, gimp, inkscape, xara extreme, corel or whatever…
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i switched from freehand to illu. so why not another time.
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they can put their cloud in their a..es
totally agreed with SDI, Peloquin, Lemieux..and the rest with similar thoughts….altho i wonder if switching to corel would b easy..with all the hard earned expertise in illustrator n other adobe apps…ill cling on to cs5 until its workable..afterall i didnt upgrade to cs6 n was actually lookin forward to cs7 ….CC can go to hell !
Not for me. I don’t much care for online services, although I will use them in a pinch. I will *always* prefer the local version on my own computer that is already tailored to my needs and doesn’t need any internet connection to do its job.
Count me out for “CC”.
I agree. I already have plenty of monthly bills. Why would I want to add another one for software?
I can see Adobe’s POV though. This will help them cut down on software pirating and allow them to streamline their software updates and releases.
Really bad move by Adobe. Not very cost-effective for many who use Illustrator / Photoshop and other Adobe products. When it’s time to upgrade, I’ll consider switching to CorelDraw.
I have been a graphic designer for the past 20+years and use adobe illustartor and photoshop in my everyday life. I am sorry to say that I think that this is a very bad move on Adobes part. I have been using illustartor since 6 +/-. And have loved thier products. But to me, it seems like adobe as become so big that they want the the graphic world to rent their programs. To me this is a very bad decision, and if this is the case. I will use cs6 intil it becomes out of date and start learning corel. Which I also like but never was a big fan of.
This is very sad news and if its true then I will be going to corel.
I don’t see the problem. I switched to the CC a month or two ago and it’s great. I felt so precious about my boxed version and found it too easy to not upgrade due to cost/convenience. This has resulted in me being stuck on CS3 since 2007. With the switch I have been getting stuck in and exploring all Adobe has to offer with little more than ‘how long will it take to download’ to worry about. Yeah I’m spending more per year than I have been, but I’m seeing value for it.
Guess I’ll be stuck on the last boxed version I upgraded to.
This is really bad news, I wont pay for a monthly subscription just to use the last version. A very risky business move indeed
aw..how sad .. $19.99 per month?
I won’t be going with a subscription model – we were already moving some web development resources to sketch on the Mac and this will accelerate that process…