

Adobe introduces subscription pricing model (Photoshop for $35/month) - oneplusone
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201104/041111AdobeCreativeSuite5.5.html

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vessenes
For all you freelancers, this is a good opportunity to change your billing --
I think you could probably add an Adobe subscription fee to your work; don't
get greedy, just pro-rate it over the number of days you used a product for
the project. You'll make money, and your clients will have a hard time
complaining about it.

So, $4k project, 12 days, used Photoshop, = $49/(12/30) = $19.60.

This would be hard to complain about as a client. For you, on every project
you do, if you're a typical small design shop where net income is roughly 10%,
you'll be adding 5% to your net income. Or, if you need two or three programs,
then 15% to your bottom line.

Of course, if you're a freelancer, then you're adding $19.60 to your bottom
line. But, I bet it would be nice to add those up, especially since projects
tend to run long in days, not hours.

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originalgeek
I disagree. I expect a professional to show up with the tools of their trade,
and be ready to work.

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vessenes
That's fine, but I bet in reality even you, holding this perfectly valid
viewpoint, wouldn't mind if someone showed you their rate card, and it
disclosed this at the bottom, and when questioned the principal said it was
due to an 'accounting practice' rather than just rolling in the obviously low
delta in price.

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originalgeek
I'd call bullshit on the "accounting practices" smokescreen and send them
packing. What's next? I get billed for computer time by the hour because they
wanted the 12-Core Mac Pro?

But more than that, they way I view someone like that is someone who would
rather nickel and dime me to death than to just just honestly charge the rate
they need to charge. I would feel there were going to be numerous little
surprise charges on their invoices. And being a hired gun myself, who started
out as a nickel-and-dimer, I would view the individual or agency as lacking in
experience.

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mgkimsal
What would be useful too is if a portion of your 'subscription' could count
against a full purchase if you decide to buy. Let me pay $49/month for a
couple months for indesign while I need it. If I decide that I want the full
version, give me a prorated discount.

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sjtgraham
Yea, I would also love to say to my landlord "Hey bro! You know I've been
renting this apartment from you for a few years now, and I would like to buy
the joint at a prorated discount"

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dpcan
It doesn't compare. At all.

Your Landlord can't just create an infinite number of apartments on the fly
and rent them to an infinite number of people at almost no extra cost to him.

With software, this is a very real possibility and rent to own makes perfect
sense.

The minute Adobe says they will do this I'm in. I would love to be able to pay
for 12 months and finally have my own copy.

At about that time, they may release a new version, and at that time, heck, I
might just stay on the subscription plan so I get the newer one. BUT, if I
stop, I still have version 5.5 that I paid for in full.

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w1ntermute
> Your Landlord can't just create an infinite number of apartments on the fly
> and rent them to an infinite number of people at almost no extra cost to
> him.

Incidentally, this is the same argument as with piracy vs. physical theft.

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jrubinovitz
I think this is a good idea for Adobe. Maybe this will deter some people from
downloading the software illegally. I only need to use PS once or twice a
year, and the thought of downloading it illegally has crossed my mind several
times. I haven't downloaded it illegally, instead I use it at my school's
computer lab for free (besides what I pay for tuition). If I could download PS
for $35 a month, I may just download it each time I need to use it and benefit
from having the latest version on my own computer for a cheaper price.

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jcl
Note that you only get the $35/month price if you sign up for a year. The
product page says a month-to-month subscription is $49/month, which would only
be worth it if you anticipate using it eight months or less out of a year.

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Retric
I think subscription pricing fits the software model vary well. However, their
pricing is stupid. If you pay for 6 months it would have been cheaper to just
upgrade the product outright. Software is not like renting a car where you
already know how to drive, you really need to know how to use it before it
becomes useful and that takes time.

Edit: Now I could see paying that as a daily rate. If you work on this stuff
3-4 days a month it would cost less and feel like less of a ripoff to rent vs.
buy.

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jcl
Photoshop is around $600-700 for the full product, $200 for an upgrade. That
means that the full product plus one upgrade is approximately equivalent to
two years of subscription -- which is the amount of time Adobe is planning to
go through two versions anyway. After that point, owning plus upgrading is
cheaper, but it seems likely that by that time Adobe will have tweaked the
subscription and upgrade prices to make owning less appealing.

The people they are really going after are those that need to swap Adobe files
(e.g. creative consultants and their clients): Inter-version compatibility is
a headache for any participants who aren't on the latest version. Things could
get particularly ugly if they start releasing features to subscribers that
aren't otherwise available until the next version.

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white_devil
> Photoshop is around $600-700 for the full product

Or something like $1500 if you happen to be European. This is roughly as fair
and balanced as FOX News.

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ryan-allen
Or Australian. If Photoshop was $500-$600 AUD I would probably buy a license.
For $1.5k I could buy a new computer instead and continue to use free tools.

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iwwr
Is it now a given that any fledgling designer will pirate Photoshop?

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sudont
Yes. That or the educational discount, where Creative Suite is 200 dollars.

I've been hanging on to my copy of cs3 for quite a while, and it only grows
less relevant over time. Eventually there will be a different solution, but at
this time there simply really isn't any application out there with as battle-
tested as a UI as what Photoshop has.

I think most of the sales that they "lose" are the same type of issues that
the music industry faces: not a lost sale, just someone trying it out who
wouldn't have bought anyway. I've never really seen any institutional or
business piracy with Photoshop, just teenagers wanting to use it to mess
around.

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jarek
It's the same model as with pirating Microsoft Office. Adobe can't say it
outright, but they'd much rather the individual users pirate as long as it
means Photoshop/CS remains the industry standard, because most businesses will
pay for it.

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chrislomax
I think this is a cracking idea for freelancers. I know we pay out close to 2k
for the web premium version and its outdated every year now as they are
releasing a new version nearly once a year!

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city41
How does Adobe make the new version relevant enough to warrant its purchase?
Do they do so in an honest or deceptive way?

I'm not a designer, but I use Illustrator often. I just bought Illustrator 10
for about $100 and it more than meets my needs. How many truly relevant new
features can really be added to a vector drawing program?

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chrislomax
Well not that we actually use it because we are a .net studio here but, the
version of Dreamweaver in the packages has to be updated at least once a year
to take into account new standards etc. Obviously when the web switched from
tables to div's then Dreamweaver had a lot of changes to make also.

I think you are right regarding the Illustrator issue though, I still have CS2
on my machine and I don't think there has been a noticable change up to CS5,
that might be why its one of the cheaper subscriptions??

Photoshop is constantly changing in my eyes, they introduced the 3d tool 2
versions ago and I would imagine they spend the next few versions perfecting
it. At that point they introduce another big feature.

I think a lot of the time the upgrades are non essential though and are just a
money spinner. Apple do it though once a year but they only charge a nominal
fee for their software. Microsoft do it every few years but they are a rip
off.

I know that if I was a Freelancer and my software was not covered by the
company then I would be more inclined to go down this route than downloading
it. I don't know many freelancers that start up and can afford the latest
version of any of Adobe's products. They are the industry standard and they
have people by the balls, this way they can try to get potential illegal
downloaders interested.

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tomjen3
Not really - that is only if you buy for an entire year.

So it is really a year at $35*12= $370.

Which doesn't seem so good anymore.

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ryan-allen
Despite the Australian Dollar currently being higher than the US Dollar, Adobe
are charging an extra 20% to Australians.

I used to use Photoshop daily, but I don't any more. I'd love to be able to
use it though I would only use it casually. Their price point is still too
high for me so I'm going without.

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revorad
This looks great, but it is incredibly hard to figure out how to actually buy
a subscription on that site. Go here -
[https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=...](https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-
US&);

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bricestacey
It's hardly difficult. You click Store > Adobe Store and right under Photoshop
are 3 buying options including the subscription.

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revorad
Once I found that it was ok, but the linked article led me down a wild goose
chase with this link - www.adobe.com/go/cssubscription. Or maybe I'm just
being slow today.

