Adobe Announces Photoshop & Lightroom for $9.99/mth

[wtlloyd]

Well, they should have no problem guaranteeing this $10/mo in perpetuity...

They will simply end the product, support it for a limited time, while moving forward with a "new" application that carries forward, with a new pricing structure.

Those of you who were using Breezebrowser (one price, free lifetime updates) before Chris Breeze migrated development to Breezebrowser Pro (sold on a 12 month subscription basis) will know exactly what to expect.

[David Hull]

Is this $9.95 for both products in perpetuity or is it just an introductory offer that will soon pop back up to $19.95 or $29.95 in a year?  This part: "The catch is you must own a copy of Photoshop CS3 or higher to qualify for the limited time pricing of $9.99 per month (sign-up before December 31, 2013)" sounds "fishy".

Hmm it's pretty unclear. Is it a limited time to permanently (or very long term at least, I mean in 30 years $10 won't be worth what it is today and in 100 years....) get $10 a month or a limited time to sign up to get to pay only $10 a month for a limited time (said time could end after the first month or two for all you know).

Anyway for those who need PS, PP and AE it all becomes much worse.

It's a little more clear over on DPR:

Adobe has added a new pricing tier to the Creative Cloud product, possibly in response to the negative response from the photography community when it announced that all Creative Suite products would require a monthly subscription. The Photoshop Photography Program gives users Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, Bridge CC, Behance, and 20GB of storage for $9.99 per month. That's not a promotional price, either, as long as you sign up before the end of this year. In order to be eligible for this bundle, you must already own Photoshop CS3 or newer.

Assuming that is from Adobe.  I would still rather have it the old way but at least this is about $200 every 18 months (for both programs, so it is even a better deal).

[wtlloyd]

Did anybody link this faq yet?

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html#pslr-bundle

If you are CC now, contact Adobe to convert (see faq)

this pricing can not be obtained after Dec 31, or if you let membership lapse in the future.

[tmagman]

Does this mean Lightroom is also going to be perpetually updated with the subscription as well? It says that it is now included in the bundle and available through CC...

[chauncey]

I rent my home, I rent/lease my car, I rent a housekeeper, I rent a lawn care man, I rent my children's education, and other software/games...why not Photoshop?

[eml58]

Found the attached on Apple Rumours, seems clear enough, I think.

$9.99/month until Dec 31st, then you'll pay more.

I imagine it'll be a 1 year possibly 2 year lock on price, then you'll pay more.

Offer isn't "Live" yet, I imagine it'll take a week or so to get onto the Adobe site.

I remember some months back on another Adobe CC thread where someone that was apparently an Adobe Software onward seller declared this would never happen, Adobe doing a special for "Photographers", I guess the Positive view on this is that Adobe are concerned at the reaction to the Full CC set up, and have at least sort to not loose customer base by not putting together something for "Photographers".

Now it's really just about wether or not People feel there's value in $120/year for PSCS6+LR5 and the value offered in upgrades as they come as part of the deal, My view is that $120/month for PS+LR5 is a reasonable deal as it includes instant upgrades & new content as they come, I'm not keen on "Renting" software, but I can live with it at a price, this price. And quite honestly I see the Adobe CC "renting" of software via a yearly subscription as the way of the future, for any Company it's about Cash-flow, the subscription system helps solve this issue for Companies, I'm surprised Apple and others aren't already doing the same.

The fact that it'll only be a "fixed" price for a determined period, 1 year, maybe 2 years, is par for the course in today's world, nothing stays the same, nothing get's cheaper over time.

[dgatwood]

Wait.  Adobe says, "We listened to our customers," and yet they're still giving us this rental bulls***?  We didn't ask for a special rental price for photographers.  We asked for a version of Photoshop where we can guarantee that we don't have to keep paying them forever and ever just to avoid losing the ability to open files that we created or modified using their tools.

What they don't get is that for most photographers, Lightroom is enough.  They might use Photoshop once in a blue moon, but for that privilege, Adobe is asking them to pay approximately the full retail (not upgrade) price of Lightroom annually.  Exactly what planet are Adobe's executives living on, again?

Not to mention that this requires us to trust that Adobe will still exist in ten years.  I have serious doubts, personally.  Short of getting bought by somebody competent, they're on their way out the door.  To me, this "special offer" looks like the last gasp for a dying company with an expiring patent portfolio and a flagship product that has gotten only minor window-dressing tweaks for nearly a decade.

I'm hopeful that Adobe will correct their craniorectal inversion before they do something suicidally stupid like trying to shift Lightroom to a cloud-only model.  That said, if they don't, I've started reading through the Aperture SDK in preparation for writing a library import plug-in.  I estimate the effort in low double-digit hours.  So if Adobe does this to Lightroom, at least for Mac users, its metaphorical carcass will be dead before their cloud version even hits the ground.

[dbduchene]

Please don't be confused, Adobe is, I believe, a publicly traded company...and as such they are only answerable to the shareholders for providing them profit.<P>
The customers are just a necessity to do this, but the customer is not their primary concern or obligation.

Once I got this concept down, I can easily understand what corporations are trying to do, maximize shareholder profits, nothing more.

It isn't personal, it is purely business....the only way the consumer can fight back, is with the pocketbook.

And more to this point the VALUE of the stock today matters MORE then the dividends. In the old days people bought the stocks looking at the Dividends and the monthly income 1st and then the increase in stock value. In todays world that has flipped. Moving a company to a reoccurring revenue can and will drive huge increase in stock value even if the total revenue stays the same. To that end revenue can in fact decrease some and the stock value can stay the same or even increase.

I HATE cloud and the concept.  I like to travel and spend time in many places when I do with NO internet access. It may be easy in the US but places like Ho Chi Minh City, Porto Sugro brazil and the likes I have had no access for days on end. I just hope that apple does not abandon Aperture and stops making version worse So that I can stay with it.   

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I feel its just a short term deal, and prices will start going up after 6 months. 
 
Adobe is undoubtedly hurting.  Let them hurt.
 
Adobe's 2nd Quarter report for 2013 shows.
Cash flows:
Net Income
 
six Months ending 6/1/2012       $409.085,000
six Months ending 5/31/2013      $141,663,000.
 
They are hurting for cash, and as more members drop than signup, a CEO is going to be booted out.

[CTJohn]

I feel its just a short term deal, and prices will start going up after 6 months. 
 
Adobe is undoubtedly hurting.  Let them hurt.
 
Adobe's 2nd Quarter report for 2013 shows.
Cash flows:
Net Income
 
six Months ending 6/1/2012       $409.085,000
six Months ending 5/31/2013      $141,663,000.
 
They are hurting for cash, and as more members drop than signup, a CEO is going to be booted out.

Let's hope he is!

[privatebydesign]

I feel its just a short term deal, and prices will start going up after 6 months. 
 
Adobe is undoubtedly hurting.  Let them hurt.
 
Adobe's 2nd Quarter report for 2013 shows.
Cash flows:
Net Income
 
six Months ending 6/1/2012       $409.085,000
six Months ending 5/31/2013      $141,663,000.
 
They are hurting for cash, and as more members drop than signup, a CEO is going to be booted out.

Adobe ran the numbers before adopting the subscription model, they don't expect to gross more than in 2012 for three years, http://www.dslrbodies.com/accessories/software-for-nikon-dslrs/software-news/older-2013-software-news/the-financial-side-of-the.html but the subscription model is on track and is being well received by the target audience, judging by the share price. https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ADBE&sa=X&ei=sPsnUpi4PIb49QTh6oCIDQ&ved=0CCoQ2AE
Share prices are near the highest levels ever and so is the company valuation.

 The vast majority of CR posters are not the target audience, they are almost certainly generally in the 10% that Adobe estimates are individuals working at home (enthusiasts, hobbyists, retirees, semi-pro photographers, etc.) And no, at the corporate level that 10% of casual users are just not that important, especially when you factor in the number of them that are using vastly discounted "educational" copies and, like many of the posters in this thread, are not regular updaters.

Adobe makes practically no money from us, they don't care what we have to say, they make money from core business creative professionals who don't care about $50 a month subscription charges but just care about how integrated their apps are and how much time that can save them. Meanwhile Adobe work out how they can leverage their platform into as many creative professionals as possible and the truth is a complete package at $50 a month with apps you might not try otherwise makes a lot more business sense than a limiting $1,500 or $2,999 suite of apps. They might not have introduced drop dead must have new PS features, but the cross apps integration work they have been doing, which is far more important to their target market, has been very good.

To see why it makes sense to Adobe you have to understand how unimportant they see us 10% as, special offers like this are nothing more than publicity stunts to calm the waters, it will not divert them from their corporate cash cow subscription model, even if the current model is a disaster, and the company valuation is certainly not suggesting it is, they can't divert from their subscription model for at least two more years anyway.

P.S. Lightroom 5 is a killer app with some very cool new features, it might still have a bug or two but the clone brush, the radial filter and smart previews are killer additions, bearing in mind a perpetual license can be had for $99 on regular special offers I don't think Adobe are screwing us either.

[Famateur]

I don't see the silver lining.

I can understand a subscription for a service (like a gym membership or Netflix), but for software? No way. When I install it on my machine, I expect to be able to use it when I want for as long I want.

One thing that really irritates me is Adobe's BS explanation that they had to go this route in order to make it easier for people to get the latest updates and features without having to wait 18-24 months for the next version. Rubbish. They could accomplish this just as easily by releasing service packs and making them available for download. They could even charge for each service pack if they wanted to. That would allow people to use their perpetual license as we have in the past while giving the constant-updaters a way to stay updated. If it was standard license with an optional subscription-based update plan + cloud services, I wouldn't complain at all.

Man am I glad I got Lightroom 5 before it went to the cloud, too. I hope it serves me well for many years. Maybe by then Adobe will retreat on this mandatory subscription hogwash.

I wonder -- how much of this nonsense has to do with the fact that Flash is increasingly being replaced by HTML5?

[JoeDavid]

I'm at PSW 2013 and heard the announcement.  The really irritating thing was that Adobe said they had heard loud and clear what the users wanted and this addresses it.  The feedback they are talking about is that a lot of us don't want to pay a subscription from now to eternity and prefer the standard pricing model.  This doesn't address the complaints in the least! 

BTW - they said it was not an introductory price and that it would remain at 9.99/mo.  If you believe that one, I have some prime oceanfront property in South Dakota that I'll sell you!  Once you are in that model, they will eventually raise it and you'll have no choice.

[tpatana]

If it's $10 for life, I might jump on it even I already have LR4 and CS6.

But if it's $10 for e.g. 12 months, and then some ridiculous amount, no way.

So can someone confirm how long they promise the $10?

[lopicma]

On the surface, this subscription model Adobe is using looks like a flop.  Kelby was giving away a full year at Photoshop World, and now this incredible deal.  I guess if your making money at this, it's better than the box purchase.   Adobe need to market this model as a SERVICE, not a PRODUCT.   You rent a service, but you own a product. 

It almost seems like Adobe shot themselves in the foot when they released Lightroom.  It does everything Camera RAW does (with a better interface), and you don't have to buy Photoshop to get the Camera RAW updates.

Until I start making "boatloads" of cash from my photography (LMAO), I think I'll stick to the Lightroom/PS Elements lineup and save BIG!