Adobe announces Creative Suite 5.5
Leaky Penny (2618 pencils) | Mon, 2011-04-11 23:01
Adobe creates a new business model for it's long running Creative Suite: Product rentals.
More importantly, and the big jaw-dropper, is that they’ve announced a subscription pricing model. They announced prices as follows:
Adobe Photoshop: “As little” as $35/month
Design Premium: $95/month
Master Collection: $129/month
Yay or nay?
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I think this is fantastic news. I really support it. \
I find Adobe's pricing to be so unbelievably exaggerated that they could if they had the desire lower the price to a point where they could substaintaily curb piracy and likely not lose any profit because they would sell more licenses.
I'll even be bold about it and say that I believe the majority of CS installations are likely pirated.
Perhaps this might work for large businesses with a number of licenses. You pay a monthly fee rather than having to put forward a business case every year or two for an upgrade.
However, for individuals or smaller businesses I just can't see the appeal. I hold off on upgrading until every other version (or every version but two) just because I often don't need the functionality.
What might make it more appealing is a more continuous upgrade cycle. One where products were updated with regular small feature additions, bug-fixes and updates - that would make me feel like I was getting value for money. (Either that or a pay on demand system where I only pay for the time I use.)
With our stuff you pay once!
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i think the "rental" is more useful in context of needing a freelancer in house for a month and not wanting to buy a full license for a computer when you only need it short term.
i don't think it makes sense as a medium- or long-term model of ownership.
my company actually has a subscription where we pay XX (i have no idea what the dollar figure is) and can upgrade any time w/in the time of our subscription when the products we own are upgraded.
honestly, as far as the upgrade itself goes, with what little i've seen i'm pretty underwhelmed on the core packages. looks like mostly some ipad / epublishing additions and some changes to products that are either more peripheral (like flash catalyst) or part of the master suite (like premiere). for the every-day designers, i think this is a non-starter.
Unbelievable. They're going to offer MORE upgrades on a SHORTER time schedule? Oh boy - you mean my software will now be outdated EVEN FASTER than before? And - even better - I can RENT the Design Suite for $95 a month? WTF?
People... let's get real here. I just bought the CS5 Design Suite in October - I paid $400. (that's tax, tags, title, everything - a flat $400. even) That's a totally legal, full-on, non-student, non-non-profit, standard CS5 Design Suite - no strings attached, registered in my name, I get Adobe spam emails every day now version (just yesterday they sent me a pitch to upgrade to 5.5 for $399). I could have bought the Master Collection for $800. So now I'm supposed to RENT the Design Suite for $95 a month? LOL! Adobe has seriously LOST THEIR FRICKIN' MINDS!!!! I'll be honest here - I was thinking about switching over to InDesign because it came with my Design Suite. But now that I've seen Adobe's plans for the future? I'll gladly pay the $299 to upgrade my old version of Quark instead. At least Quark understands their customers are CUSTOMERS - not ATMs.
Where were you able to buy it for $400?
Probably second hand?
Some guy won it in a contest and sold it to me. He never registered it or anything - it's totally legal, no strings, nothing - I own it, it's registered in my name.
Look around when you're ready to buy - you'll find all kinds of good deals outside of Adobe.
+1 on Adobe being ridiculous.
But I have to say, I feel potentially more equipped to be an ATM than a tech guru with a bunch of free time... last time Quark bugged out on me, I had to back up my entire font library, clear it, run some funky script, download a Quark update and then reinstall my fonts (and then cry in the bathroom) all of which took almost an entire day. ...so far, InDesign is winning the 'doesn't make me want to pull my hair out' contest, for me (then again, I'm quite happy w/ my CS4).
On the other hand, think of all the mac fans (myself included) that play the 'to wait for the next version or buy now' game with every piece of equipment they get ready to buy. "Now it has a magnetic cover!" ...It's a chronic problem.
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
Well it looks like I will be using CS3 for the rest of my life, but then what in CS5.5 do I really need.
p.s. I think this is why Layout magazine was stop. Their articles were for the latest Adobe software, while most of their customer base could not keep up with Adobes upgrades, and found the articles did not relate too them.
The 5.5 edition is usefull for those who are creating for the new devices, tablets and so on.
InDesign becoming a real design hub for print and devices. But the export and publishing function is the real hickup. When you make a one off edition the export and publish function is now Ok, you don't have to create two different layouts (one landscape, one portrait), but if you have publication that offers a membership you still need to make all kinds of sidesteps to be able to do that.
The multi device viewer in Dreamweaver and the simple way of adding different css syles depending on the screen resolution is a big timesaver.
I'm going to have a look at some publishing options and see if I works for me.
Great idea, but I already bought Adobe CS5 design suite