I think I understand what Adobe is trying to do - it\'s trying to keep ahead of a changing market, maturing products, and the threat of increased competition. I suspect that it has watched how Google Apps has put pressure on Microsoft\'s cash-cow software and it is trying to preempt that kind of competition.
I think the acid test will be when and if those first-year 50% discounts on the CC service expire. The success will depend on how many customers they have managed to get on-board by that time and how many will stick around with the price increase. That is when I think it will finally dawn on a lot of people that if they pull out at that time to avoid the increase, they will be left will absolutely nothing. At that point they will have 3 choices: continue to pay the piper, stop the service payments and purchase the software outright (on top of what they already paid for a year and assuming the software purchase is still available), or give up on Adobe altogether.
I think the monthly payments probably work for some businesses if they use most of the software regularly but I just can\'t see it for me. If I was forced to the monthly model, I would probably just live with what I have for as long as possible and then see what the competition offered.
I do think that in the short-term, quality is going to suffer on the Adobe products. Maintaining the new cloud service, continuing the software license purchase model, and trying to keep up with the growing tablet/mobile market has to be stressful for a company that is trying to keep costs contained at the same time.
Dec 19, 2012 at 08:48 PM
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