Adobe expands Photoshop and Lightroom offer

Well, some good news here I reckon, looks like Adobe are cracking even quicker than we thought.

I noticed today that their dummed-down "Elements" range has fallen to half the price of what they were (less than half in some cases). The Photoshop/Premiere Elements bundle for example is down from £120 to less than £50.

I'm guessing that so many people are ditching them and choosing the pay-once alternatives, that Adobe have decided to try and beat those packages by tempting you into their relatively underpowered Elements stuff.

That's what I reckon, anyway.

Let's just hope people won't fall for that one, either. When it comes to choosing between Corel Photopaint X6, Serif Photoplus X6 or Elements, remember who ALWAYS had fair prices and those who did not.

Adobe DID NOT - so please support the ones that always did. Keep this up and like any business, they WILL come crawling with their tail between their legs with the customer back in control.

Adobe say the is an annual contract and if you cancel after 30 days you will have to pay 1/2 of the remaining balance. The must have taken lessons from the phone companys. I think I'll skip the early temination fee and stay with Aftershot for organization and Lightzone for the workflow.

Adobe: The price is $9.99 a month for the current year, and then $19.99 a month in subsequent years.

(Source: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3581971)

This ISN'T an expansion of the original offer. That one specifically said the price would never change as along as you signed up by December 31. Now the price is only good for a year and you have to sign up by December 2. I can only assume it eventually defaults the "normal" price which is double.

ADOBE? No, thank you! It's not even that I don't like the products but I don't want anything from a company who doesn't care at all when Millions of their user accounts have been hacked. Fortunately I'm not depending on their services.

Corel PaintShop Pro X6 Ultimate is $49.99 right now. And you'll own it forever.

I have to laugh at all the criticism of Adobe. If you don't like it, don't sign up. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

I have to laugh at those people who say it's "wrong," especially those who tell me what is good for me. It's neither right nor wrong. It's a business decision. If it generates more income for Adobe it's "right" for the company and it's shareholders. Adobe isn't in business to make you happy; it's in business to make money. And what's "right or wrong" for you doesn't matter to me; I'll make up my own mind, thank you.

The only real problem I have with this deal is that it's bait and switch. After 1 year Adobe jacks the price back up to their normal rate, anf you're screwed.

To all of you who thinks this is ok, it isn't, and in the simplest way possible, here's why:

It is NOT ok to continually pay for a product you will never own. Other than blatant greed, I cannot, no matter how hard I try, see any reason you should not be allowed to keep the product once your subscriptions have covered the cost of the retail product.

If you can think of even ONE reason you should not be allowed to keep the product you had covered the cost of, then I'm all ears!

People need to get a grip and stop talking crap. I could pay, say, £600 for a Photoshop licence before, and therefore there is no reason I should not be able to keep my licence once I covered that £600 in subscription fees.

What they are doing ought to be illegal, it is NOT a phone service, it is NOT a product that can ONLY work through a subscription model. They should offer a choice, or, allow you to keep your licence once covered but stop the updates if you stop paying your subscription.

END OF

I would buy this, except when I tried to sign up Adobe says that because I am in South Africa I have to pay $29.99 per month.

I say screw that.

If you don't like the deal they offer, don't take it. Don't get angry. Go somewhere else. Give your money to a rival to help them offer a better product. It's good for everyone. Even Adobe users. As Adobe will have to drop their prices or improve their product.
In fact, didn't they just drop their prices? Mass exodus appears to be working.

I talked to Adobe's German shopping line today. According to them you get to rent Photoshop, but *own* Lightroom 5. The drawback is that when LR 6 arrives you have to buy an upgrade, just like anybody else.

Too bad, I would have been more tempted if I knew that I'd get two versions of Lightroom for about the same price that I'd have to pay for two upgrades, with Photoshop CC on top (owning LR4).

The only way I can see this working is if Adobe adopted a far more reasonable and guaranteed pricing model.

A more reasonable structure would be $4.99/month for any single product, then offer special "bundle" prices (E.g. Any 3 for $12.99/month, any 5 for $19.99/month, the entire suite for $39.99/month).

But the most important part to get people on-board is to guarantee those prices for a minimum of five years.

Also, if/when you drop subscription for a given product, it should fall back to a "limited functionality mode" that allows you to still open, view, and print your current images but maybe disables most filters, or the ability the save any new changes, etc..

Ok here's an actual issue I've had, I've talked to Adobe and they have no solution:

I work on the side for a small nonprofit community arts school. We are not an officially accredited school, we just teach classes mostly for hobbyists or artists wishing to expand their range. We only need Lightroom and Photoshop. We are a small program and have 6 computers.

Because we are not an accredited school and because multiple students will be using the software. The only option they offer that we are allowed to use is a Groups option which requires us to purchase the full suite (we do not teach Illustrator or Dreamweaver or Premier) and requires us to have an administrator (which we do not have or can afford to hire) switch the log ins between classes. This is ridiculous.

There are a bunch of Adobe Corporate trolls doing damage control on this forum. You can tell who they are because they will not show their real face. To them I say- This was a bad corporate move, moving to a Net based license compliance model. This was never about the "Cloud". Your software is pirated because you want too much for it. All software has an 'ark of development and application' and all but the internet tools have reached maturity. Adding new features is meaningless when they go beyond the tools original spec. That Corporate chose to kill off the boxed SW versus selling it side by side with the subscription version sez volumes about Adobe's corporate greed. Take this to the board... Tell them "it's bad for public rations to continue down this path". Tell them "we are hemorrhaging our loyal base and this will have long term effects on the corporate bottom line". This, they will understand.

Adobe have yet to present us with an acceptable "Exit-strategy" before I commit to a subscription. Imagine what happens if you want to un-subscribe one year later and try to open your image-catalog you generated in Lightroom during that year in an older LR version from the pre-Creative Cloud era, - you cant! You're stuck with the subscription as long as you live if you want to open you generated libraries again! Lightroom and your libraries are being updated continuously (during the subscription-period) and will not be compatible with previous versions of Lightroom in the event that you would like to opt out of the subscription-plan at a later stage.

For those of us that are lucky enough to have access to excellent software such as Aperture, I say, stick to them!

/Thanks

Yeshe

NO!

Obviously the price is an "enticement" or come on. Ever since I realized the concept as a "wet dream" of Microsoft, I have feared the whole concept of "cloud" applications for years. Now it is here in it's infant stage. The concept of "having a hand in your pocket" has come full circle. You will not be able to fathom the full implication of this process until it is entrenched across the board. A scary thought.

My fears go beyond pricing, which is not to say it isn't enough of a concern. Putting all of ones eggs (tools) in one basket in the form of a "cloud" should be scaring the pants off of most folks. Your computers, in themselves, are nothing more then boat anchors without software. The whole concept is to make software and even the personal computer obsolete. What you will be left with are "services" and appliances to connect to them. Connectivity is all there will be and YOU WILL BE at the mercy of it, FOR EVERYTHING! Metered life with one universal kill switch.

NO THANKS!

I don't get the thing about renting vs. buying. You end up with the same functionality at the same cost if you do regular upgrades. If you own property you must pay taxes on it, or the government will retrieve it back from you. That's a kind of renting. For the price of two Starbucks coffees a month I get $800 worth of software.

There are some very angry and bitter posts on this stream .. lighten up people! I thought the CC pricing structure was pretty parasitic initially, but this latest offer of £8.78/month for PS & LR is just about affordable for me, so I've taken the plunge.
I've never been able to afford the software until now and relied on some very old versions of questionable provenance. Now I'm using the very latest software that I read about in the mags, an ACR that reads my camera's RAW files, and, as I spend about an hour a day in PS, paying about 30p/hour for the privilege. Not a bargain, but not a ripoff either.
Hopefully they won't hike the price too much after 12 months, but if they do, I can always go back to CS2.

Someone's going to get fired for not meeting their 4Q sales projections. And then there's that bit about burning bridges with your customers standing on them.

It's a good offer. You're not committed for life. If it's too much then leave at the end of your annual term. What's the worst that can happen? You lose around £110 (in my case). But that's having used the software for a year too. You can of course buy from somewhere else, but you would need to spend around £200 to get something as good as this. That equates to about a 2 year subscription.

What will make or break this deal is the price stability each year. A big hike in price would offend many non-business users and plenty of small business users alike.
Pete :-)

If only they had done that at the beginning...of course many signed up to CC for a lot more who did not own CS3...!

I've been using Photoshop and Lightroom since their first versions, but I'll move to Aperture now. It's optimized for the Retina display and will serve my present needs. I'll choose when I pay again.

I fear my new signup account would be hacked.

I think it's a very good offer and I have signed up. For €144 a year I have access to the best image editor there is with automatic updates as they arise. Already, ACR's Radial Filter and Automatic Perspective Correction - to name just two of CC's innovations- make it a very attractive option over previous versions. People may whinge about the concept of renting rather than owning the software but, like it or not, that is the way it's going to be and you either stick with your existing version of PS - which will become increasingly dated as time goes by - or you accept what Adobe are doing and go with the flow. Yes, you could also, of course, opt for another image editor but for me, I am so used to PS that a change was never a realistic proposition.

I shall NEVER rent software. End of.

10USD, 12 EUR - what kind of idiot can set such conversion rate?

The ease of reopening the image in raw as I go along as additional layers alone; was worth the $120. The Shake Reduction filter is subtle in most instances, best refining critical focus of hand held shots. Images mos of the way there but could use a bit more pop. The filters built in smoothing is better than going back into luminance reduction. Press Alt and click the Cancel button in the filter will reset it to its recommended settings for the given image. PS CC also seems a bit speedier than CS6 here and there. I like the idea of students being able to get their hands on skills rolling on the cheap, education is so terribly expensive these days. I gave a computer to a lady friend next door and she wants to learn a little Photoshopping, $120? Hmm yes, I think I just found her Christmas present.

The funny thing here is that so many people are claiming Creative Cloud is cheaper, while Adobe are introducing it to stabilise and maximise income. So something is not adding up.

I don't manipulate the content of my photos much, just the overall look. So Capture One is fine.

But thanks to the guy who introduced Photoline further down the page. It's worth giving them some support.

They are not reducing their prices or expanding this offer out of kindness. Think, people.

I am not renting my software.

This deal is so good I signed up twice.

I like it I have a behance site now which was due for payment so I get a year of free PS and LR. Jeezus it is only the price of two coffees, are all you guys living in a third world country...

It will cost 20-30 $ or € x month after that 12 Months and i don't get it how easy it will be to get out of the ABO then.
Can it be canncelled at anytime ?

Someone finds a way to migrate my LR work to different software and I'm gone.

Of course they are doing this because they care about the photographers... and not because no one needs their overpriced, cloud locked software.

It was a bad deal then and it is till a bad deal.

This is a great deal, Adobe finally did something reasonable and ppl are still complaining.

Never trust Adobe again.

It's not just that once you stop paying you can't use the software.

From Adobe's Terms and Conditions:

6.4 Adobe may modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Services or Materials, or any portion thereof, with or without notice. You agree that Adobe shall not be liable to you or anyone else if we do so.

So they can permanently discontinue the service at any time and there's nothing you can do about it!

CS6 can handle my current cameras fine and I've now purchased Capture One Pro 7, so no new Adobe products for me.

I'm happy they've opened it up. Right now I'm upgrading nearly every cycle for Lightroom at about $100 a pop. Until I got a (Very) cheap student version of PS 5.5, I was dropping another $50-$100 or so on PS Elements every year or two. So for the same money I'm already paying, I'm getting both with regular updates.

What happens when I leave? Well, in theory I lose my editable versions, but I still have my jpg finals. In practice most other major players support, at least to some extent, the psd format, so either I'll stop editing entirely (and the psds won't matter) or I'll go to a format where I can probably import most of the work for the rare case where I'm re-editing old photos.

Hey, Adobe, listen to this: i. Don.t. Want. It.

I want PS on my Mac. Period.

Adobe had a little lamb, her fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere where 'dobe went the sheep were sure to go!

Are they desperate, or what? CC is collapsing.

Hold on. Subscription is going away, along with upper management.

"Rent" is the wrong term anyway - extort would be more appropriate. If you rent a flat, for example, you really have something, all the time, and the landlord cannot let it to somebody else. With this software, though, you get a product and once you got it, the cost for the company is quasi nil! Unless you believe their promises of constant upgrading, of course.