Adobe testing a new price point for the Creative Cloud Photography Plan

PureClassA

Canon since age 5. The A1
CR Pro
Aug 15, 2014
2,124
827
Mandeville, LA
Shields-Photography.com
Several years ago when Adobe announced it was moving to a subscription service, the cries on here and elsewhere were shrill. But the fact is in the last 5 years, the stock price of Adobe has QUADRUPLED. It's gone from about $70/share to today at $281.

With my regular work running a financial planning firm, I actually bought Adobe stock for some of my clients when they made the announcement years back. It worked out pretty damn well.

Here's the reality of this move. Adobe is going to $20 per month. What they are determining now is what they realistically expect the subscriber loss ratio to be. In other words, they can afford to lose HALF their customers and still net the same fiscal position they are in now. But they won't lose half. They might lose 15 - 20%, which means their gross revenues will STILL go WAY up and my Adobe stock positions will go even higher.

Anytime companies make these decisions, they always calculate loss ratios. If Adobe is going to $20, they have already factored in a few folks leaving their platform.

For example, I have been a full subscriber at $50 for a year or two now. I recently bought Final Cut Pro to migrate there and cut my Adobe subscription back to LR and PS only. Again, all factored in.

If you want to move to Capture One or whatever else, go on ahead. Adobe understands and has accounted for your departure in their pricing model.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Upvote 0

cayenne

CR Pro
Mar 28, 2012
2,868
796
I switched over to Capture One a few months ago and I wish I did it sooner. Can't replace Photoshop with anything just yet. Provided they don't change the price of the full suite that includes Premiere and AE, I'm unaffected. I've got no problem switching to Avid if that happens, and I know a lot of my peers will, too. It's already a questionable call to keep paying for that service.


Give Affinity Photo a look....so far it is my best PS replacement. I believe they have a free trial...available for OSX or Windows.

This link here shows links for iPad and Desktop.....the iPad one is surprisingly powerful.

But check out the desktop page,.

Affinity Photo - Windows, OSX and iPad


HTH,

cayenne
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Upvote 0
It's interesting to know that companies have no shame to offer the same product at different prices - just to test if lab mice customers can accept the higher price.

This is standard marketing practice to determine the price elasticity. Back in the Coupon age, companies would send out different prices to subgroups and look at the buy/mail-in rate.

Marketing trick. Float an unreasonable price, then actual price ( I'm betting it will go to $14.99) seems palatable.
It's called "anchoring". The first number that is mentioned "anchors" the people answering's perception.

Q: How many people did in traffic in the EU every year?
A1: Below 5.000
A2: Above 5.000

Q: How many people did in traffic in the EU every year?
A1: Below 50.000
A2: Above 50.000

In both cases the average answer deviates very little from the mentioned number, even when you ask people who work with traffic safety professionally.

(the real number is about 26.000 people gets killed in the traffic in the EU)
 
Upvote 0

FramerMCB

Canon 40D & 7D
CR Pro
Sep 9, 2014
481
147
56
The annual subscription plan before was a negligible business expense. The increased price remains a negligible business expense.
Whilst I agree with your statement - a lot of plan subscribers are hobbyists/enthusiasts and/or semi-pros and for this crowd (especially the hobbyists, some of whom are pensioners) it's not a "negligible business" expense...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0

PureClassA

Canon since age 5. The A1
CR Pro
Aug 15, 2014
2,124
827
Mandeville, LA
Shields-Photography.com
Subscription based services are what give companies cash flow safety. Don't be surprised if you see Capture One and others moving to that model in the not too distant future. They are looking at companies like Adobe, Microsoft, and many others and seeing there is indeed a HIGH tolerance if not an appetite for it. In order to insure their company is around for the long haul and able to offer new technologies, they have to employ a sustainable fiscal business model. You can't survive and grow with most of your customer base sitting on a purchase for years at a time or forever.
 
Upvote 0

unfocused

Photos/Photo Book Reviews: www.thecuriouseye.com
Jul 20, 2010
7,184
5,483
70
Springfield, IL
www.thecuriouseye.com
I remember we have already had the same topic (with the same prices) several months ago here on the forum.

Yes, we did. Same arguments being repeated.

I will only add this: In both the previous thread and this one some people did not understand the difference between Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. Lightroom Classic is the desktop version, which resides on your personal computer, just like all the other Creative Cloud programs. Lightroom is Adobe's name for the cloud version of the program which does not live on your computer, phone or tablet, but lives in the cloud and is accessed by your device. I think Adobe hired the same naming consultant who advised Canon to have three different names for their consumer APS-C camera line. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0

LDS

Sep 14, 2012
1,763
293
Several years ago when Adobe announced it was moving to a subscription service, the cries on here and elsewhere were shrill. But the fact is in the last 5 years, the stock price of Adobe has QUADRUPLED. It's gone from about $70/share to today at $281.

Evidently, from a shareholder perspective, any company that can exploit its market dominance to increase profits just forcing the customers to pay more without any need to invest more, is welcome. When you're the customer, not so much...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0

LDS

Sep 14, 2012
1,763
293
I was thinking.....why doesn't Adobe offer their CC offerings WITHOUT cloud storage? I mean, not everyone needs cloud storage just to use their tools locally, where most people do their work, right?

They have no incentive. Having people moving their data "in the cloud" is another opportunity 1) to get a steady cash flow because they have to keep on paying or their data will be deleted 2) exploit those data trying to extract "valuable information" which can be resold for more profits

Step 2) may be hindered by regulations like European GDPR, but it could take time before the some real fines change the mindset of some companies.
 
Upvote 0
Apr 25, 2011
2,510
1,885
I was thinking.....why doesn't Adobe offer their CC offerings WITHOUT cloud storage? I mean, not everyone needs cloud storage just to use their tools locally, where most people do their work, right?

Why don't the offer that option and keep the prices low?
The $10/mo photography plan (Photoshop plus Lightroom Classic) comes with a minuscule amount of cloud storage.

The $10/mo Lightroom plan and the $20/mo photography plans have a terabyte (or two, don't recall right now) of cloud storage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0

PureClassA

Canon since age 5. The A1
CR Pro
Aug 15, 2014
2,124
827
Mandeville, LA
Shields-Photography.com
Evidently, from a shareholder perspective, any company that can exploit its market dominance to increase profits just forcing the customers to pay more without any need to invest more, is welcome. When you're the customer, not so much...

No, but thanks to living in a free and competitive marketplace, the customer can choose whether to pay the new price or take his/her business elsewhere.
 
Upvote 0

dtaylor

Canon 5Ds
Jul 26, 2011
1,805
1,433
I stuck with PS CS6 for a long time but finally relented and got CC.

Since I've moved to CC and paid Adobe monthly the "improvements" I've seen include:
  • A general loss of performance in PS that is not related to Retina display resolutions (i.e. the loss is there at FHD as well).
  • More bugs.
  • An ACR module that slams multiple cores to 100% and spins up my fans like a jet engine if I'm looking at a RAW file and doing NOTHING else. To the extent that I've investigated this, it appears to be due to an idle timer that fires continually to do nothing important, i.e. some "engineer" didn't set it up right so that it fires every 5 seconds or 1 second but instead fires as fast as it can.
  • A new document dialog that makes me sit and wait every time I use it so that it can download some stupid template options I never use. So if I click New... and wait 5 seconds, then immediately click New... again, I get to wait another 5 seconds because the "software engineer" was too stupid or lazy to display the dialog immediately and load the template options as they come in, and/or cache the download. This is over a 75 Mbps connection.
As for Lightroom, I don't use it. To the extent I've tried it to see if I would want to use it, it is inexcusably slow.

This, btw, is on two machines each with quad core i7's, 16gb and 32gb of RAM, full SSDs, and the desktop machine has one of the fastest video cards you can buy. I was mining with the thing during the last crypto boom.

If Adobe thinks I'm paying more for this they are pants-on-head retarded. There's very little holding me to CC and I've debated canceling and going back to CS6 as is. I've also considered Capture One.
 
Upvote 0

dtaylor

Canon 5Ds
Jul 26, 2011
1,805
1,433
If you want to move to Capture One or whatever else, go on ahead. Adobe understands and has accounted for your departure in their pricing model.

Adobe isn't delivering anything of value for their subscription service. They're milking an effective monopoly position. They desperately need a competitor who can knock PS and LR off the pedestal they're on.
 
Upvote 0
Jul 28, 2015
3,368
570
Adobe isn't delivering anything of value for their subscription service. They're milking an effective monopoly position. They desperately need a competitor who can knock PS and LR off the pedestal they're on.
Your comment is illogical. If after all these years, with all the competitors out there they are still number one then to me it means that they are still offering something the others don't and that 'something' is worth the subscription charge: ie what they offer has 'value' to the subscribers.
People seemed fine paying >$600 for the full fat CS years ago, but start complaining when that cost was amortized over a monthly subscription charge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0

dtaylor

Canon 5Ds
Jul 26, 2011
1,805
1,433
Your comment is illogical. If after all these years, with all the competitors out there...

What competitors? Aperture is dead and C1 is the only major competitor I can think of.

...they are still number one then to me it means that they are still offering something the others don't and that 'something' is worth the subscription charge

The software has literally gotten worse since CS6. There is still years of prior code sitting there along with UI familiarity. That has value. But I paid for that value when I got CS6. I'm looking at the money I've paid since then and I have nothing to show for it.
 
Upvote 0

unfocused

Photos/Photo Book Reviews: www.thecuriouseye.com
Jul 20, 2010
7,184
5,483
70
Springfield, IL
www.thecuriouseye.com
...This, btw, is on two machines each with quad core i7's, 16gb and 32gb of RAM, full SSDs, and the desktop machine has one of the fastest video cards you can buy....

I'm surprised that you are experiencing all these problems. The computer I have is new, but probably no more powerful than yours (most likely less), but I have not experienced any of the issues you raise. I would think that if the problems were as severe for other users, we would be hearing more about them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0

YuengLinger

Print the ones you love.
CR Pro
Dec 20, 2012
3,751
2,269
USA
Your comment is illogical. If after all these years, with all the competitors out there they are still number one then to me it means that they are still offering something the others don't and that 'something' is worth the subscription charge: ie what they offer has 'value' to the subscribers.
People seemed fine paying >$600 for the full fat CS years ago, but start complaining when that cost was amortized over a monthly subscription charge.

It isn't "what" they offer, but "who." Scott Kelby is the Tom Brady of software promotion. :love:
 
Upvote 0