Adobe CC Prices Skyrocket

[smoke665]

Guess it was inevitable, but my plan price shot up a whopping 170% month to month. No warning, no we're sorry, no kiss my ***, nothing. I knew a price increase was eventually due, but dang......they could have given some warning, and/or phased it in. Coincidentally, a quick check of competing software that will import LR files, is almost the same price now. Can you say "price fixing"!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cgw114 139]

Guess it was inevitable, but my plan price shot up a whopping 170% month to month. No warning, no we're sorry, no kiss my ***, nothing. I knew a price increase was eventually due, but dang......they could have given some warning, and/or phased it in. Coincidentally, a quick check of competing software that will import LR files, is almost the same price now. Can you say "price fixing"!!!!!!!!!!!

Saw that too. Jaw-dropping. Exit strategy for Adobe? Competition licking their chops...
Greed extended to plain vanilla Elements--sub-only. Jeesh!

 

[smoke665]

Saw that too. Jaw-dropping. Exit strategy for Adobe? Competition licking their chops...
Greed extended to plain vanilla Elements--sub-only. Jeesh!

But what can you do????? Some of the other competition can Import LR catalogs, but not some of the more sophisticated masking option now available in LR. PS isn't so much a problem as it's a destructive editor so you can save it as a TIFF. Supposedly you can do that in LR also, with the edits saved in a sidecar file, BUT another software may or may not be able to use those edits. Also, as I said, it appears they are all similarly priced now.

 

[otherprof84 26]

Guess it was inevitable, but my plan price shot up a whopping 170% month to month. No warning, no we're sorry, no kiss my ***, nothing. I knew a price increase was eventually due, but dang......they could have given some warning, and/or phased it in. Coincidentally, a quick check of competing software that will import LR files, is almost the same price now. Can you say "price fixing"!!!!!!!!!!!

Adobe stock price is down 36% over the last year, while the Nasdaq index is up about 30%. At the same time, rating services I think are reasonably good, rate the company a buy and their earnings seem fine to me before the increase in price. (Thinking about the health of the company - maybe relevant to the conversation?)

 

[cgw114 139]

<<GASP>>Maybe part of a plot to fuel a film revival??? Hah!

"rating services I think are reasonably good, rate the company a buy and their earnings seem fine to me before the increase in price."
Key word here is "before." Fourth quarter and beyond will tell the tale on Adobe. There's a price ceiling that may be coming into sight soon. I'll run my non-sub stuff till it breaks.

 

[smoke665]

Adobe stock price is down 36% over the last year, while the Nasdaq index is up about 30%. At the same time, rating services I think are reasonably good, rate the company a buy and their earnings seem fine to me before the increase in price. (Thinking about the health of the company - maybe relevant to the conversation?)

I've been eyeing an opening long position for some time but they've never signaled a turn around from the slide. With this recent excessive price increase coupled with the rising user discontent with the software, there's a good chance the slide will increase, even with a short term rise in net income, as users finally pull the plug. Prior to this, they offered a better product at less cost then their closest competitor, this price increase puts them just over 6% above them now. Personally I think there will be an exodus from the product, maybe not at first but as competitors up their game the drain will increase. They don't pay a dividend, so any gain from the increased price won't go to shareholders, but any negative market move will. Out of the 8 services I use, only two rate them a Buy, one Avoid at all cost, and the rest neutral. Today they had 135 downgrades, and 55 upgrades and their Power Rating is -45 and the trend line continues down. The one service I rely on frequently is really pushing them as a short sale candidate. Lessons learned, had I shorted them exactly one year ago, and closed it Friday, I would have pocketed a nice little profit of over 17k on a 100 shares.

 

[cgw114 139]

From my seat, it's a mature product. Competitors nipping at its heels for years. AI programs are gaining ground fast. Adobe sadly lost touch with its many markets long ago--LR and PS users lived on different streets than Elements users. All contributed to share price. The smell of desperation is tough to miss.

 

[DanOstergren23 8]

I've been getting warnings and hearing stories from folks for months now about an imminent price hike, and I've been expecting it, yet my subscription for the photography plan has stayed at $10 per month. I still expect my luck to run out and it to go up any month now, but for the time being I'm definitely happy it's still only $10 a month. I don't pay annually and instead pay once per month, so I know I'm not getting a discount for an annual plan. I wonder if there was some sort of legacy promotional plan that I signed up for, but I started paying for the photography plan 10 years ago so I don't remember.

 

[4073706]

This is software in general.
Subscription based pricing will always be more attractive to bean counters. The perpetual license in now a unicorn as the companies can just cancel it at any time with impunity as individual users just cannot afford the litigation costs.
Depressing isn't it !!!

CHEERS
JBO

 

[smoke665]

I've been expecting it, yet my subscription for the photography plan has stayed at $10 per month.

I can't find it now, but I remember somewhere that they were phasing it in based on your yearly anniversary date (even if paying monthly).

Subscription based pricing will always be more attractive to bean counters

The primary goal of any company is to make money. Granted there's a price point where they price themselves out of the market.

The desktop accounting software I use, jumped from $600/yr to $1200/year last month. They're trying to force users to go to a cloud based model ($300/yr). Like the subscription model, using a cloud based model provides significant savings and control for the company, but creates significant downsides for me as a user. Adobe is already pushing their cloud based model.

 

[smoke665]

Update to the price increase: contacted Adobe customer service. The price they dinged me was including taxes. I contacted them, about this and as a long time customer they gave me an option to switch to annual billing for a rate very close to what I had been paying.

 

[JBPhotog]

Adobe made this price increase public a few months ago. Annual plan subscription renewal back then was the way to avoid the increase.

 

[DanOstergren23 8]

I can't find it now, but I remember somewhere that they were phasing it in based on your yearly anniversary date (even if paying monthly).

If I remember correctly, I started paying for the photography plan in October of 2014, so I'll find out fairly soon.

 

[smoke665]

Interesting development yesterday, lots of downgrades from hold to sell, with a target price of $310. Surprisingly the price increase wasn't the main factor. Instead the very thing that Adobe is rushing to implement, AI, was the critical threat. Analyst see the advent of AI generated code, by upstart companies as the major threat to Adobe. New companies with little capital or manpower, can use AI to generate Apps with the ability to erode Adobe market share at minimal cost.

 

[TJMcG111 18]

I've been getting warnings and hearing stories from folks for months now about an imminent price hike, and I've been expecting it, yet my subscription for the photography plan has stayed at $10 per month. I still expect my luck to run out and it to go up any month now, but for the time being I'm definitely happy it's still only $10 a month. I don't pay annually and instead pay once per month, so I know I'm not getting a discount for an annual plan. I wonder if there was some sort of legacy promotional plan that I signed up for, but I started paying for the photography plan 10 years ago so I don't remember.

If you have the Photography Plan (20GB storage) and are still paying $10 per month, that means your plan hasn't come up for renewal yet, but when it does, you will have the opportunity to switch to a yearly payment plan and keep the 20 GB plan for $120 per year. If you do not switch to the annual payment, your monthly payment will approximately double to $19.99 per mo., and you will be switched to the 1 TB storage plan. I switched last March, and I pay $120 per year; there has been no increase in my Photoshop/Photography plan in more than 13 years.