Goodbye Photoshop

[Benco]

Yes, I have this sneaking suspicion that the people who rarely upgrade (or pirates) are not exactly the target audience of Adobe.

I do hope you meant 'and pirates'.

 

[amolitor]

Paltry amount? which Adobe product goes for a paltry amount? I'm all ears.

Me too.

Also, I think it's worth noting that there are a LOT of successful businesses built around the notion of selling a LOT of product at lower prices to a LOT of "little" people, rather than selling a few products at exorbitant prices to a handful of "well-heeled" people. Those "little" people certainly DO pull the trains of such companies.

Absolutely. The Mars corporation is very interested in paltry amounts, and I certainly allow that Adobe might also be. I haven't the foggiest notion what percentage of revenue comes from the $400 avery 3 years guys, and it certainly could be "most of it". It is, in short, perfectly possible that the $400 every three years people are in fact pulling the train.

All I'm saying is that it's ALSO possible that it's "5% of it" and the other 95% comes from people who are dropping a thousand bucks a year on this that and the other thing.

 

[Josh66]

Yes, I have this sneaking suspicion that the people who rarely upgrade (or pirates) are not exactly the target audience of Adobe.

I do hope you meant 'and pirates'.

I think it works either way. But, yeah, if I could do it over I probably should have said 'and'.

Note that I am in no way saying that 'people who rarely upgrade' are pirates... Two separate market segments, lol.

 

[Derrel]

I was just commenting, not aiming anything at you directly.

Speaking of money, Photoshop is around $600 give or take. Photoshop in the new world is $20 a month.

Photoshop CS6 = $600
$20 a month x 30 months = $600

That price is only on the initial purchase, which was long ago for me. Since then, it's upgrades, and like I said, my last one was $210 and lasted from a year and a half to two years before the next upgrade. Other's waited 3 to 3 and a half years, upgrading only every other release.

But to be fair it's fairly difficult to calculate the exact cost. How often do you upgrade now? Upgrades are covered in the CC world. If you buy one version of Photoshop and NEVER upgrade sure - the new model is much more expensive. If you upgrade every few years though I'm not seeing a big (if any) increase.

I've done the math on this. You're mistaken. It's huge. Watch:

My last upgrade was $210. At every two years, that's $8.75 per month average. At 3 years, for those who upgrade only every other release, that's $5.83 per month average.

$19.99 is right out the window. Oh, and that's if you pay up front per year. If you actually pay month to month, it's 29.99, which makes it even worse.

So, at $29.99 per month for the typical upgrade period of 18 months, it's now going to be $539.82 for what was $210 last year.
If we calculate at a reasonable 24 month period instead, it's now going to be a whopping $719.76 for what was $210 last year.
And for those who upgraded every 36 months (every other release), it's now $1,079.64 for what was $210 last year.

Little to no difference, my a$$.

Oh, cripes, somebody actually brought in some real-world examples and did some math..and guess what... Adobe $y$tems wants to ream him. Imagine that! How come all the Adobe shills keep telling us this is good for us? It's suuuuuuch a good deal. On their Facebook page, on dPreview, Adobe's shameless money grab is garnering nothing but outrage. I do not like the way they want to hold users' files and photos hostage. Stop paying the monthy extortion fee...and lose your access to your images, or the ability to manipulate them. Nice racket Adobe!

 

[SquarePeg]

If the cloud/lease option was so great for its customers, Adobe would not need to force it on people. They own the market and they are foolishly opening the door for their competition.

 

[Josh66]

Nice racket Adobe!

Indeed. I doubt it is really as shocking as you make it out to be though. Surely you saw this coming? (edit - even if you didn't see it coming, you can't tell me that it surprises you...)

There are really only two options from this point. Pay up or move on. Or hit up the piratebay, lol.

 

[sleist]

I do find it fascinating that the thrust of this thread appears to be:

- I spend <paltry amount> on Adobe products, and so this change is bad for me
- Adobe should therefore not do this

Maybe Adobe doesn't care very much about <paltry amount>? Just thinkin' outside the box. It's all very well to be furious and to wave your arms about angrily, but if you're not pullin' the train, you don't really get a vote.

I interpret things more along the line of:

I spent money expecting to be able to upgrade when I chose to.
I can't do what I planned to do. My purchase decision was based on incorrect assumptions.
Now I'm unhappy about it and choose to express my displeasure.

I'm happy with CS 5.1 and do not feel I need to upgrade.
I bought CS 5 for $299 in March 2011. It was on sale ($400 off) for people who recently bought PS Elements.
Total came to $325.00 including tax and shipping.
Over 25 months, that comes to $13 per month - and dropping.
As a hobbyist, I don't ever plan on spending full price on CS-WTF - ever.

There are too many of me I think and Adobe is trying to change the business model. They may regret it eventually, but people should express their displeasure. It seems to have worked wrt Windows 8.

BTW, I think it's wrong of you to belittle a person's opinion because you think some amount of money is insignificant - paltry in your words.
Shame on you. Some people give up a lot to be able to afford a passion like photography. Shame on you for not respecting that.

 

[Ballistics]

I laughed..the so-called core group of users that is quoted in the article "supports" being charged on a monthly basis...

zOMG...wow...gullible much???

The full version of Photoshop CS6 is $650, and if you do the new membership it's only $20 a month so that's 32 months or 2 years and 7 months.

Most people are on a two year upgrade cycle so you are actually saving money in the long run.

What is you creative cloud username?

The student version is $200. Do they have a student discount?

 

[Steve5D]

Last time I checked, Adobe isn't writing checks to themselves. The customers do .

This line of thinking keeps getting brought up and, to a degree, it's nonsensical.

I bought Elements 10 at the end of 2011. I am, technically, a "customer". They haven't gotten a dime from me since and, considering how happy I am with the product I purchased a year and a half ago, I don't see them getting any more of my money any time soon.

But I am, by every measure, a customer.

And yet I'm not writing any of these "checks" you speak of. The fact that I'm happy has not benefited them an iota in over a year.

I'm just gonna' sit back and chuckle at the comments which state that the most important thing to "big business" is "the customer". It's not. The most important thing to big business is making more money for the business, so they can stay in business. How they're able to go about that is secondary and, if they piss people off in the process that, too, will be secondary. Anyone who states otherwise is, I would submit, someone who has never worked for big business, and has never sat through marketing and strategy meetings meant to help a company increase the bottom line.

Will the idea increase revenue? If they believe it will, then they'll do it. That's how "big business" works. If they piss off customers, and those customers leave, well, they'll just get new customers.

I understand the desire for a customer to say "I'm most important", I really, really do. Nobody wants to believe that their interests are not front and center. But the reality is that they, and you, are not. You, as a customer, are simply a conduit for Adobe to receive money. If you go away, there will be another customer to fill that void.

Anyone who thinks that Adobe didn't expect this backlash is fooling themselves. They made this move because the indications they have are that, after all the whining has died down and whining customers have gone elsewhere, this will prove to be a profitable move for them. Now, market research has been proven wrong before, but it's also been proven right. Only time will tell which applies here.

Is it a gamble? Sure it is. Everything with business is a gamble. But I get the very strong sense that the prevailing belief here is that someone at Adobe woke up one morning and said to himself "We should do THIS!". That's just not how it works. For a corporation like Adobe, these things are done by committee. They are not done rashly, and they are not done without due consideration for both the positives and the negatives. These things are done after extensive market research. These things are not done if that market research says it's going to be a money loser.

I, too, wonder how many people complaining about this are really going to be affected by it, or if they're just bandwagon jumpers with little else to do but boost their post count...

 

[amolitor]

BTW, I think it's wrong of you to belittle a person's opinion because you think some amount of money is insignificant - paltry in your words.
Shame on you. Some people give up a lot to be able to afford a passion like photography. Shame on you for not respecting that.

Huh?

 

[Josh66]

As a hobbyist, I don't ever plan on spending full price on CS-WTF - ever.

There are too many of me I think and Adobe is trying to change the business model.

Here's the thing... Please note that I am not saying that I like it, this is just how it is...

"As a hobbyist", they don't care. You'll spend maybe $1000 per decade... They'll write that off as a 'cost of doing business'. They could give it to you for free and wouldn't even notice. They even admit that piracy is not really a big concern for them (I don't entirely believe that though...)

You are not the type of customer they cater to. They honestly do not care what you think - you are insignificant to them. The people they care about are the people that pay them, often.

I don't like it any more than you do, but that's just the way it is...

 

[Steve5D]

I interpret things more along the line of:

I spent money expecting to be able to upgrade when I chose to.
I can't do what I planned to do. My purchase decision was based on incorrect assumptions.
Now I'm unhappy about it and choose to express my displeasure.

Did Adobe ever tell you that you would be able to upgrade forever?

I don't think they did. Therefore, the incorrect assumption is on you. You assumed you would be able to do that. Adobe never told you that, however...

BTW, I think it's wrong of you to belittle a person's opinion because you think some amount of money is insignificant - paltry in your words.
Shame on you. Some people give up a lot to be able to afford a passion like photography. Shame on you for not respecting that.

I love the drama that is TPF...

 

[Steve5D]

As a hobbyist, I don't ever plan on spending full price on CS-WTF - ever.

There are too many of me I think and Adobe is trying to change the business model.

Here's the thing... Please note that I am not saying that I like it, this is just how it is...

"As a hobbyist", they don't care. You'll spend maybe $1000 per decade... They'll write that off as a 'cost of doing business'. They could give it to you for free and wouldn't even notice. They even admit that piracy is not really a big concern for them (I don't entirely believe that though...)

You are not the type of customer they cater to. They honestly do not care what you think - you are insignificant to them. The people they care about are the people that pay them, often.

I don't like it any more than you do, but that's just the way it is...

^^^^
THAT...

 

[bentcountershaft]

I laughed..the so-called core group of users that is quoted in the article "supports" being charged on a monthly basis...

zOMG...wow...gullible much???

The full version of Photoshop CS6 is $650, and if you do the new membership it's only $20 a month so that's 32 months or 2 years and 7 months.

Most people are on a two year upgrade cycle so you are actually saving money in the long run.

What is you creative cloud username?

The student version is $200. Do they have a student discount?

If you sign up by sometime in June you can get the full suite for 20 a month. After that it's 30.

 

[Josh66]

Here's Lifehackers' take on it:
http://lifehacker.com/what-photosho...rce=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow