Adobe has been offering its suite of apps by subscription for a while now. But this week Adobe announced future versions will only be available through their Creative Cloud service by paying a monthly or annual fee, not as products purchased once per version release. Microsoft switched to a similar model this year for Mac users, offering their apps as part of Office 365, a subscription service.
The advantages of subscribing rather than buying are many: frequent smaller updates can be rolled out instead of major releases every one or two years, large upgrade purchases can be avoided, apps can be installed and removed from computers easily, and often these subscription licenses allow for installation on more than one computer. But overall costs can be higher, especially for those that did not regularly buy new versions in the past.
Apple’s Mac App Store is a slightly different cloud-based model, where software is still purchased with a single payment. But otherwise, it is similar to a subscription model since apps can be moved and re-installed easily, put on multiple machines, and minor updates tend to come frequently instead of major updates at longer intervals.
Mac Apps Move Into the Cloud
Comments: 7 Responses to “Mac Apps Move Into the Cloud”
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I have just been reading about this article on another site,and according to Adobe it`s to stop piracy. By moving it to Cloud it costs about $50 a month to rent it.
I read all the comments on this,and they are not very happy about it. Most of them blame Adobe,because they are going to make a lot of money.
On the Apple Store they have moved it to the Cloud,but has you say you only pay the once for the application,which I am surprised about that Apple are not charging you like Adobe.
This will be the end of a relationship between myself and Adobe. I will not bother to look at future upgrades. I use Photoshop and this will be the last version I will use. I am so sick of the continual gouge by software companies. At lease Apple has more sense then Microsoft or Adobe.
This will also hurt the cottage industries that live off books, videos, etc, that feed off teaching people to utilize the software. Too bad.
Suggestion for a future video: alternatives to Adobe Creative Suite. Everyone is looking for that right now.
Adobe, while producing many great products, is known for poor customer service. One more nail in the Adobe coffin is requiring a subscription service ONLY for Photoshop, etc. Some of us have no use for iCloud. Going forward, Adobe Corp. will now be found in my "rear view mirror."
Tom: CS includes about a dozen apps. There's no alternative for the entire suite -- no one else includes all of that in one product (image editing, illustration, video editing, motion graphics, app development, web development, page layout, etc). So what can replace CS really depends on the user and which apps they need. There are alternatives in every case, but not bundled and not by the same company.
Adobe this is the last straw!!! This is the worst idea from the customers side, great for MegaBigBucks corp. Bob Reed...I too have NO use for the cloud. I tried keeping my new iMac off line as long as possible in January but many programs will not run unless they can check in with the mothership.
Gary,
Although you cited pros of Adobe's Creative Cloud, you didn't mention the cons. The big one is that you won't be able to save, revise, re-use any documents or web sites that you create with Adobe's CC if you fail to renew your membership. And what guarantees do you have that Adobe won't continue to raise its subscription prices? Already, it has announced that the current subscription price is merely an introductory price (actually, bait) and will increase.