So I was talking to a high pressure sales man at Adobe the other day trying to find out their future plans. He was very persistent that the cloud was the future and that was the way they were headed. I told him I only used Photoshop so why should a pay a monthly fee for all of their programs. His reply was once I start using the other programs I will like them and be glad I did.
When I said they would lose a large portion of their user base he said he didn't think so and the cloud is the future I better get with it.
So what will you do.....I am curious....

If possible could some of you explain your reason for your choice in this poll

Adobe backed down from only allowing upgrades from the most recent version. Cloud pricing is a price increase by any other name. The features they just announced for cloud only subscribers is not anything that interests me. They risk losing a lot of customers if they go cloud only.

I only upgrade when there is something definitely worth the upgrade fee, not when it suits Adobe to bill me...

Most likely they will go to a subscription only model before they require that all files be stored on their outsourced servers. Of course you'll probably be paying for unused storage. Whatever the business model there will be various service tiers.

It's just not feasible for those of us that do high volume work to read and write multi-GB files over the internet. One week I created ~5TB of TIF, PSD and PSB files. Even with the fastest cable I can get it would be hopeless.

EBH

I think their push for the cloud is driven by their own bean counters and having a guaranteed monthly income make them more stable for institutional investors. That's ALL they care about and not a goddamned thing more. Adobe is now approaching Corel for being one of the worst companies that markets the kind of software we use on a daily basis, although, to be honest, no one is as bad as Corel.

As a high end user of Ps and InDesign, really the last thing I want is to forced into a monthly cloud subscription. I may not even want to upgrade every year and a half, when Adobe says you should. The very idea of being forced into renting their products rubs me so far in the wrong direction that I can't really post it here. But what are the realistic product alternatives? There is nothing that competes with Photoshop and now InDesign is in that same league. Thankfully, there are several very capable competitors to LR.

Bernie wrote:
Adobe backed down from only allowing upgrades from the most recent version.

They did not. They simply offered a grace period. Extended upgrade eligibility expires at the end of this month.

After December 31st, you must be on CS5 to upgrade to CS6, and you'll have to keep current on any newer versions (assuming they still sell them, and assuming you can get by without the added features and mid-cycle updates they're reserving for Creative Cloud customers).


Peter Le wrote:
I told him I only used Photoshop so why should a pay a monthly fee for all of their programs.

If you're only using one app, you can subscribe to only one app at $19.99/month on contract.

While it's more than an upgrade fee, it's at least not hundreds of extra dollars for software you're not using.

Ideally, subscription based software provides better support and more frequent point releases. The proposed Adobe fee seems manageable to a professional or serious amateur.

I hope that an alternative lower-cost path is offered for casual users.

I could not agree more Peter Figen.......lack of competition always creates problems....

Here is something else that bothers me. I asked him.....So once a month my Photoshop will call in by way of a Internet connection to verify I payed my bill......What if I don't have a Internet connection at that time but I have payed my monthly fee......like maybe I am in a remote location using Photoshop on my laptop.....what will happen. He replied it will lock up and be unusable. My reply.....Oh I'm sure there will be a lot of people happy about that......

mgutman wrote:
Ideally, subscription based software provides better support and more frequent point releases.


Adobe support is the pits and has been for years. Adobe does little repression testing. CS6 is the buggiest releases of Photoshop ever. It took five months after its release for adobe to fix 56 core issues in CS6 many other issues have still not been address. Then the poor cloud users were hit with an additional update that introduced additional bugs that need to be address and it also remove a feature many users use. If your in business having to depend on Adobe for support not a good idea.

Ideally Adobe should test their software before they push it onto their customers. After all their customers pay with real money for bogus counterfeit Photoshop produced bills printing is prevented by software Adobe incorporated into Photoshop. Should not the rest of Photoshop work as well?

Peter Le wrote:
Here is something else that bothers me. I asked him.....So once a month my Photoshop will call in by way of a Internet connection to verify I payed my bill......What if I don't have a Internet connection at that time but I have payed my monthly fee......like maybe I am in a remote location using Photoshop on my laptop.....what will happen. He replied it will lock up and be unusable. My reply.....Oh I'm sure there will be a lot of people happy about that......


or what if you are a service member who can't hook his laptop to the internet for 6-8 months? Sure that's not most users but we're out there and this move to cloud everything doesn't fit when you live chunks of your life either without internet or on government computers and file transfer to a personal computer is not feasible.

My DSL service is only 1.7MBS download and 0.31 upload. It's pretty bad. A cloud based service is a no go for me. Why would Adobe want to lose me as a customer?

An old saying in baseball: "If you want to score, hit 'em where they aiin't."

It looks like Adobe is intent on allowing competitors to score by removing their players from a big part of the field.

NCAndy wrote:
My DSL service is only 1.7MBS download and 0.31 upload. It's pretty bad. A cloud based service is a no go for me. Why would Adobe want to lose me as a customer?

The only thing Creative Cloud requires the internet for is periodically checking that you have an active subscription. "Cloud" is a meaningless marketing term; it's still just Photoshop installed on your computer.

Imo, PS is reaching the point of diminishing returns on possible improvements (real improvements) that Adobe can fetter out of it. I think that at the "nuts & bolts" level of what PS does, most of use could be fine with CS3 or later, thus the "biggest" need to upgrade is for camera support ... which can be achieved through LR as well.

I've got no "crystal ball" ... but it is hard for me to imagine what I will need in the future that isn't already in CS6. Unless there is a fundamental paradigm shift to how digital images work, I can see CS6 being good for decades (until OS won't support it, etc.). The need to be "current" isn't a driving force for me.

I've got my CD of CS6 (et al) and expect it will last me a very long time. I don't see a CD for CS7 as an available option. Make backup copies of the CD and put it in the safe deposit box ... you'll be glad you did ... as this is likely the last chance to OWN your own copy of PS before becoming a lifelong tenant renting from the "pie in the sky". (Just stay current on LR "as needed" to support your gear).

Adobe's business model is changing because its revenue stream is drying up. As more people put down their dSLRs in favor of smart phones, Photoshop moves closer to becoming a relic (like the enlarger in your closet) or a niche filler. Sure, there's a dedicated core of PS users but we're becoming relics too. The death of the desktop PC is being forecast with certainty in some circles; no desktop means no desktop apps.

Just as publishing (and the need for CMYK conversions) has diminished, so too has the demand for professionally produced images and prints. Many pro photographers are scrambling to keep from going broke, as evidenced by the number who are out on the lecture and workshop circuit. Adobe's subscriptions will keep some number of them coughing up cash on a regular basis, especially if there is no other choice.

Another facet in play is the fact that Adobe has never gotten a handle on piracy. The pirates continue unabated while legitimate users are inconvenienced, sometimes to the point of being barred from using the software they've paid for. If Adobe suspends publishing software on DVD, then the only way to obtain the newest version of anything will be to belly up to the subscription bar and plunk your money down.

I will refuse to play along, but Adobe doesn't care. The corporate eye is on what will fill the coffers in the years to come. For every user like myself who abandons ship, Adobe hopes to lure in two newbies for whom cloud based environments are the natural order of things.

Adobe is one of the worst companies to deal with. They are going with the "cloud only" because software as a service is a more consistent revenue stream for them. Photoshop is at the point where there are fewer and fewer reason to upgrade with each release. They are to the point where new features are becoming more and more specialized and most people are completely happy with what they have.

I was forced to upgrade before because without fail, every time I needed to get something done with photoshop, I would start it up and it would tell me my registration has failed and I would have to call customer service, hope that it was still open so that I could wait for an hour on hold for them to give me a new serial number. It would work for a few weeks and then do it again. They had me reinstall it, edit registry settings, and it would always fail.

Next time I have to upgrade I will be looking for alternatives. Pixelmator and Gimp are two that I've considered.

+1 @ Ho1972 ... there is likely to be ZERO VALUE in "refusing to play" ... as a means to get Adobe to change their business strategy. For me, it is simply accepting that this is what they are going to be doing and then developing my own strategy for contending with it.

CS6 disk for a long time + LR (or maybe Elements for non-LR users) for updates as needed. They might be able to hold some hostage @ updates for new gear, etc. ... but I don't think that means you have to be forced into the cloud for PS based solely on the fear of support issues for new gear, etc.

Adobe's business model is changing because its revenue stream is drying up. As more people put down their dSLRs in favor of smart phones, Photoshop moves closer to becoming a relic (like the enlarger in your closet) or a niche filler. Sure, there's a dedicated core of PS users but we're becoming relics too. The death of the desktop PC is being forecast with certainty in some circles; no desktop means no desktop apps.

Just as publishing (and the need for CMYK conversions) has diminished, so too has the demand for professionally produced images and prints. Many pro photographers are scrambling to keep from going broke, as evidenced by the number who are out on the lecture and workshop circuit. Adobe's subscriptions will keep some number of them coughing up cash on a regular basis, especially if there is no other choice.

I don't think so, unless Adobe doesn't understand the term "bubble." Adobe started out as an application for graphics professionals when digital cameras were still in the $20,000 range. There was hardly anyone to use them up until 2000.

So Photoshop enjoyed a bubble of amateur populartion and goes back to being a tool for professionals. Adobe can continue to make money on Elements.

The thing that makes an enlarger a relic is Photoshop--Photoshop won't be a relic until something effectively replaces it. There will still be graphics professionals that need a robust image manipulation tool.

RDKirk wrote:
Adobe's business model is changing... etc.

I don't think so, unless Adobe doesn't understand the term "bubble." Adobe started out as an application for graphics professionals when digital cameras were still in the $20,000 range. There was hardly anyone to use them up until 2000.

So Photoshop enjoyed a bubble of amateur populartion and goes back to being a tool for professionals. Adobe can continue to make money on Elements.

The thing that makes an enlarger a relic is Photoshop--Photoshop won't be a relic until something effectively replaces it. There will still be graphics professionals that need a robust image manipulation tool.

I agree, to a point. The demise of many print publications may leave the base of graphics pros smaller than it was before the bubble occurred. Adobe may decide it's just not cost effective to continue to serve them... but I'm just engaging in speculation. One look at my stock portfolio will tell you my crystal ball is not very accurate.