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creative cloud
Adobe released their latest version of Creative Suite — what would have been Creative Suite 7 — earlier today. Only this time, Creative Suite is no more, superseded by Adobe’s new subscription offering, Creative Cloud.
Creative Cloud is a controversial release, since longtime Adobe customers want a way to buy a permanent license, or at least wish for more subscription options so they don’t have to get everything. But for now, Creative Cloud is what it is — and it’s a big upgrade to all of Adobe’s main apps.
Here’s how Creative Cloud will work for you, if you’ve already got a copy of Creative Suite and want to upgrade and get the latest features.
Adobe shocked the creative world by announcing last month that it’s abandoning its Creative Suite in lieu of Creative Cloud subscriptions. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for a complete set of Adobe creative apps, you’ll only pay $50/month for everything they sell. That little change has many Adobe users up in arms, ready to desert Adobe for alternate apps.
But Adobe’s not the only one making a subscription play this year. Microsoft’s now doing the same thing with Office 365, and Autocad, Mathematica, and other major developers have done the same for years. The difference is, Adobe’s making a subscription-only play: individual purchases are no more, and subscription is the only option.
That doesn’t have to be such a bad option, though. Here’s why.
Last year, Adobe launched their Creative Cloud subscription service along with the newly released Creative Suite 6. Creative Cloud lets you download every one of the full apps from Creative Suite Master Collection to your Mac or PC, and share creative files online for $49/month. That’s still pricey over time, but a huge savings over the initial cost of buying Creative Suite Master Collection outright for $2,599.
If you already have a copy of Creative Suite, though, upgrading to the latest version often still works out cheaper if you have a smaller edition. I had Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard, and upgraded to CS6 Design Standard for far less than a Creative Cloud subscription would have cost me. Another option is buying a one-app version of Creative Cloud, which is one way, say, to get Photoshop for $19/month.
Creative Cloud apps get updates more often than their traditional Creative Suite counterparts, so Photoshop users especially already have new features over those of use with Creative Suite. It’s one of the many ways Adobe is trying to push us all over to the subscription side.
About 15% of you said you plan to get Creative Cloud in our poll last year, and more said you’d consider it. That’s why we’re wondering how many of you actually use Creative Cloud. Has it worked out good for you, or are traditional upgrades still your preferred way of getting Adobe apps?
With the arrival of CS6, Adobe is trying out a new business model. Instead of you forking over a huge chunk of your hard earned cash once every few years to stay up to date on the latest industry standards in professional creative software, you now have the option to subscribe and pay a monthly fee.
For an introductory price of $49.99 per month, Adobe will let you download and use any CS6 application, store your work in the cloud, and automatically receive any updates that come along.
Today we want to know what you think of this strategy. Will you continue to buy CS versions outright or do you like the idea of subscribing? Once you’ve voted in the poll, let us know whether or not you like this direction for the industry as a whole. Would you subscribe to MS Office or iWork? Why or why not?
Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Creative Suite 6, the next reincarnation of its popular graphic and web design software. The company’s official store has been updated with all the new products and users can either purchase the software outright ready for download or upgrade from previous versions of Creative Suite.
A couple of weeks after Adobe revealed an upgrade offer to CS6, the latest reincarnation in its popular Creative Suite, which includes such big software names as Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver, to any existing CS3 and CS4 owners, the San Jose-based technology shed a little more light on its upcoming cloud service, namely Adobe Creative Cloud.
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