Even something as simple as saying Adobe is insulting customer's intelligence is an insult to anyone who likes their new model... if I happen to like it then I must have limited intelligence. That may seem overly sensitive but it's not... if you want me to listen to and respect your opinions then shouldn't you do the same. If I and 500,000 other people are signed up and paying for CC then perhaps there is some value in it, unless we are all just stupid minions.
Ah Ok I thought i had clarified in a previously deleted post
I said Adobe is insulting it's customers intelligence I dont believe that this statement means that anyone that likes the new model is of substandard intelligence.
My intent was that they are insulting our intelligence by giving one option of one model and shoving it down our throats simply because they have a monopoly and are in a position to do so. The insult to customers intelligence in this action is if they believe people that dont like / agree with the new system will put up with it like good little sheep. (please note that I am by no way of this statement implying that you or any CC adopter is a sheep, merely that this is how adobe want us all to be and to follow along with what they want.)
If some people like the subscription model and are happy with it then thats great for them
However Adobe should offer the choice.
I personally prefer to look at an upgrade version and see if its worthwhile for me for example there is no way in hell I will ever run windows 8 on a computer I think windows 7 may possibly be the last microsoft OS i even bother with. I dont like metro and dont like the changes luckily microsoft dont have the market dominance they once had and apple provide a very competative competition these days
another example office 365? no chance i will bother with this there is nothing office 2011 cant do that i require so i'll keep using that as its a perpertual licence. This is sort of how I see CS6 too however the gotcha that Adobe have and use to really hold their customers by the proverbial balls is the camera raw support for new cameras, this is a sneaky enough method of ensuring people upgrade and I've never liked it but put up with it.
I prefer to be able to have a look at the next version and the extra features it offers and see if i will have any use for those or if the current platform i'm using will continue to be suficient.
Yes i find the pricing model of CC offensive, they are using the good ol bait and switch lower prices up front with a substantial increase once everyone is hooked on their crack they are pedaling to use another metaphore. but worse still once they have you hooked they are free to change the goal posts when, and however they please this is the insidious part of the whole CC environment.
part of the problem is the packages they offer are so full of bloat that I wont use, I really dont want to be paying monthly for all that I dont care if some package i dont use gets some wonderful extra feature yet I still have to pay for that as well as the 10 other programs i dont use. Perhaps a lower price for each component and the ability to totally customise your own CC package might be more appealing to me and most likely many others however point 1 still applies that you are at their mercy for whatever they want to do pricewise in the future. For example someone might want to use only photoshop, premier pro and Adobe Acrobat Pro and all the other stuff is fluff filling up my hard drive that i dont use and yet still have to pay for, this does not seem fair to the customer.
Having a copy of the software that you pay for, licence and use for whatever duration you wish for that up front cost does not carry this risk, sure there are some semantics regarding if you actually own the software or not due to licence terms and conditions however this is largely irrelevant in a practical sense
Even though Adobe say you can still buy CS6 they have completely removed the ability to purchase this from their website. The implementation of the CC like a Guillotine coming down on the customer is another problem I have with how Adobe went about this. Seriously do their marketing people really think this is going to make people happy? I really think their market dominance has led them to a level of Hubris that is going to alienate alot of customers. Market dominance has a habit of doing this to any big company, I'll again use microsoft as an example with their laughable initial licence implementation on windows 8 which they have since backpeddled on very fast. Or how about apples refusal to incorporate usb host technology into Ios products iphones, ipads etc when android have had this for some time now.
There is a point where a customer will accept being pushed around by a company to and the company continues to push but eventually there is a tipping point where the level of outright disprespect of the customer by the company goes too far and the customer eventually votes with their money and has good serious look at the competition It took me a solid 2 years to transition from windows to mac but I did it because i had enough of the microsfot gouging this is where Adobe are now.
Perhaps the Adobe net reps (I have previously refered to them as minions I still believe this is a valid term as they provide little constructive help other than trotting out the party line) perhaps they could take the negative feedback to Adobe who might look at fixing the model and at least go back to selling standalone purchases to those customers that prefer that model.
Lastly the issue of piracy, it is utterly laughable if Adobe think this model is even going to cause software pirates and hackers to even break stride, I am certain that hacked versions will be out in very little time.
so those that want to use pirate software will actually be inconvenienced the least. Its the users that want to do the right thing by Adobe and buy the software that are getting the roughest deal and the most disrespect from the company.
