Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

General discussion and anything that isn't covered by the other categories.
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Fri 24 May 2013, 09:41

There is more from Thom Hogan in his blog entry for 21 May. In particular, it talks about the financial aspect and offers a solution based on Lightroom aimed at photographers. Apparently, Adobe expects a financial downturn over the next three years before revenue from the rental model picks up in 2016 to 2012 levels. It estimates that 90% of its customer base are professionals, with only 10% outside of that group.

I am not holding my breath about Adobe introducing a solution specifically for photographers any time soon. During the period leading up to the Creative Cloud announcement, a number of people made similar suggestions for a product but the company has ignored these so far. In the short to medium term I suspect that there is more profit in selling perpetual CS6 licences and persuading people to subscribe to the Creative Cloud.

I liked his comment that "May is 'mess with photographers month.' " now that flickr has also just announced its own changes.

http://www.bythom.com/index.htm
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Thu 06 Jun 2013, 08:25

Another blog article, which is the first of two. In it, the author rightly castigates Adobe for the way it handled the announcement that it was going to the rental model, which has caused much of the current furore. In my own case, I am a registered owner of CS6 and all of the previous versions since CS2 with the exception of CS3, yet Adobe has not written to inform me of the changes. One interesting comment the author does make is that the introductory pricing for existing Photoshop owners could become permanent, rather than just being for the first year. Whilst this would still represent a substantial increase in percentage terms on current costs, it would be more bearable and more likely to encourage me to upgrade to CC.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_ photographer/2013/06/creative-cloud-i.html

I look forward to next week's post when the argument that this is a positive change is put forward.
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Fri 14 Jun 2013, 13:32

And now the argument in favour of Adobe's move to the subscription model. :shock:

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... -good.html
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
User avatar
davidc
Posts: 2410
Joined: Wed 12 Sep 2012, 11:27
Location: location, location.
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby davidc » Fri 14 Jun 2013, 14:53

Opinion seems split right now and still raging, although the impact on Adobe's stock price has been a sustained negative. Expectedly so in initial stages but you'd think it'd have bounced back slightly by now.

LR5 coming out reignited the CC debate and it seems that you have pro-Adobe, CC subscriptions are easily the best thing ever, then the anti-Adobe crowd saying they are jumping ship now before anything else is taken subs only and what seems to be a middle ground of people with CS6 and LR4 waiting to see what happens.

There are also unconfirmed reports that there will be one or two more LR versions at most before LR is subscription only too - after all, the same logic that they have used for CC applies the same to LR and will force those using ACR to enter a subscription or be unable to use their RAW files in the same way when they buy new cameras.

Personally I think once the fuss has died down from this they will switch LR to subscription too, albeit at a lower rate that's appealing enough to keep most of the userbase but lock the revenue stream in for Adobe. Though that relies on Adobe surviving the apparent droves of people leaving them...

LR5 isn't without it's own set of bugs it seems, some quite serious, though this won't be the first time Adobe has used an initial release as a beta test! :)
Check out my website - davidcandlish.photography
My Top 50 album is here
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Sat 15 Jun 2013, 22:27

According to Thom Hogon in his post on 21 May, Adobe is expecting revenues to decrease between now and 2015 and only start to increase from 2016 onwards. Investors are not usually into stock for the long term and will probably only keep a holding for a few months at most, so I would expect the price of Adobe stock to be depressed for a while.

http://www.bythom.com/index.htm

Thom Hogan also reckons that only around 10% of the Photoshop CS customer base are enthusiasts, but they are the ones making the most noise. I would not base any predictions about Adobe's future on what these people are saying.

If I wanted to use most or all of Adobe's premium products and did not already own them, I would consider £47 a month to be good value. If Adobe maintained its introductory pricing for existing PS CS users beyond the first year, I would probably pay it even though in percentage terms it represents a significant increase compared to a biennial one-off upgrade.

Personally, I have my doubts whether Adobe will make LR a subscription only product, at least in the short to medium term. It can pull that stunt for premium priced software where it faces comparatively little competition and most usage is commercial. For a £100 product which is aimed at both professional and enthusiast customers and where there are other well established competitors, that hardly seems to be an option unless the subscription model becomes de facto for the other software vendors. More likely Adobe is looking to drive some revenues from camera upgrades requiring the latest Raw converter. Similarly with PS Elements, which as a consumer product would meet considerable resistance to renting low cost software.

I have been away, so have not been following the LR5 rollout as I only had occasional Internet access. I have heard about people experiencing problems updating from previous versions (Thom Hogan, 12 June), but not any other bugs. If that is true, then it is very disappointing and something which Adobe will need to address as it transitions from software vendor to service provider.
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
User avatar
davidc
Posts: 2410
Joined: Wed 12 Sep 2012, 11:27
Location: location, location.
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby davidc » Wed 10 Jul 2013, 09:38

Dragging this back to life, briefly - I had never realised until now that the initial state of the subscription only model meant that should the subscription lapse you couldn't actually access YOUR photos again!

Thankfully it seems like Adobe have realised that blunder and are correcting it.

But that's a mighty mistake to make!
Check out my website - davidcandlish.photography
My Top 50 album is here
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Wed 10 Jul 2013, 11:46

I didn't think that this was ever actually the case. Adobe did not manage the announcement at all well and there was a lot of of misinformation circulated on the Internet about what the changes meant. I suspect that this might arise from what happens if files are saved using the online storage which is part of the Creative Cloud subscription package. So far as I am aware, there have never been any access restrictions to files stored on the user's computer. "See What happens to my files if I cancel or downgrade my membership?" at the Adobe FAQ.

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/creativecloud/faq.html

Incidentally, I am currently trialling Photoshop CC, mainly as I am interested in the new Camera Shake Reduction function. I have encountered many images where it does not work at all well and only a few where it is possible to see a noticeable improvement. So far, I have not seen any images which could be rescued to the point which I would consider acceptable. CSR was the main attraction of a subscription as a counterpoint to my unsteady hand but it seems to have a number of limitations, at least in its initial form. It is probably too much to expect that an image can be made miraculously sharp. I'll post some results in due course.
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
User avatar
davidc
Posts: 2410
Joined: Wed 12 Sep 2012, 11:27
Location: location, location.
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby davidc » Wed 10 Jul 2013, 13:04

Before and after would be very interesting. I tried a 3rd party tool proclaiming to do the same and it failed miserably.
Check out my website - davidcandlish.photography
My Top 50 album is here
Mike Farley
Posts: 7316
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 16:38
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby Mike Farley » Wed 10 Jul 2013, 13:19

davidc wrote:Before and after would be very interesting. I tried a 3rd party tool proclaiming to do the same and it failed miserably.


Was that piccure? I see that the final version of the product is now available, £39 for the Photoshop Elements version or £69 for a more advanced version for full Photoshop. If the results are similar to CSR, it would hardly be worth the money.
Regards

Mike Farley
(Visit my website and blog - www.mikefarley.net)
User avatar
davidc
Posts: 2410
Joined: Wed 12 Sep 2012, 11:27
Location: location, location.
Contact:

Re: Adobe Moves to Subscription Model for Photoshop

Postby davidc » Wed 10 Jul 2013, 15:27

Yes, I thought it was a waste of time. And when the first page of the installation help says "Many anti-spyware programs flag us as fradulent, ignore them!" it didn't exactly fill me with confidence.
Check out my website - davidcandlish.photography
My Top 50 album is here

Return to “General”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 18 guests