Adobe Creative Cloud-What Say ye

Are you opening a BIG can of worms?

At this point of time, the SaaS is untried, though experimented with, mode of marketing, so, who knows. About all you will get, until this marketing mode matures/ages, are emotional opinions. And this mode will change as Adobe (and others) gain experience with the offerings.

There are, both, advantages and dis-advantages. Some of these are:

Advantages:

    Lower initial layout of funds for current software.

    Up to date software, patched as soon as vendor generates fixes.

Dis-Advantages:

    Relies upon a fast/reliable Internet service, from end-to-end.

    May be committed to a term contract (i.e.: $50.00/month for two year term with fees for early termination).

Disclaimer:

    As of this time, I have not looked into Adobe's Creative Cloud and do not know if there are term contracts and/or if $50.00 a month applies if you just want to use their software for a month and not intend to renew the following month.

Now, this is just what I see from the top of my head. Personally, I have little or no interest in SaaS ihn the areas of my main income. I do know that my mechanic does not rent his tools to work on my car, and I feel that I should own my own software license and have the physical application on my system(s) to accomplish work for my clients. But, as I stated early on, this is an emotional statement.

I've looked into it and for us, the model does not make sense. We have four computers in one department that need to run Adobe software, mostly for using client supplied files. Internally, we don't use Adobe for original design at all because we have Corel.

Thus, we use the boxed set because it allows for installation on three computers.  The fourth computer uses a previous version. 

Using the Cloud model, we would have to pay $150-$200 per month. One $50 subscription per user.  That makes NO sense to us because even over a single year cycle, it would add up to more than the boxed set! We will continue to purchase the boxed set.

DIGITALGRAPHIX said:

My main question to the users of Corel and all die hard fans of Corel is how this will effect the users and artists of Corel world?

I haven't been a die hard user of Corel Draw in many years though the last version I upgraded to was X5.  I knew at that point that X5 was the end of the line for me.  But yeah, I'm all over the Creative Cloud option.  $50.00 a month to have access to not just the handful of program that I typically use, but ALLL of them.  I can now, at my leisure look into programs that I would never have bothered to care about since there was no possibility of me buying them.  For $50.00 a month, I get everything, plus Adobe services, plus updates.  It's a no brainer.

DIGITALGRAPHIX said:

My main question to the users of Corel and all die hard fans of Corel is how this will effect the users and artists of Corel world?

Obviously, a lot of people who went with CorelDraw just because it seemed like a cheaper equivalent are going to now go with Adobe because it's the default package.

DIGITALGRAPHIX said:

What are the strength and weakness of cloud service?

The Cloud service at this price is all strength, no weaknesses.  The previous subscription service was not happening.  Like, they must be crazy.  Now they've reduced the price of the whole thing to the cost of just one program from the previous subscription.  LOL  Adobe has seen the writing on the wall.  There are a lot of upstarts out there doing interesting things.  I personally began using Serif DrawPlus more and more because it truly is a wonderful little vector program for under $100.00.  This move will be painful to the little guys.  Adobe is Walmart and the other guys are "Johnny's Neighborhood Hardware".  I was personally doing my best to not depend so heavily on Adobe because the cost to play is very high.  That's how I got to using Serif DrawPlus.  

DIGITALGRAPHIX said:

And strategically lets guess what would be Corel next move?

There next move is the same as their previous moves for the past 12 years.  Not much.  Look at Corel's website.  Would you get the impression that CorelDraw is among their more important products.  Look at CorelDraw Suite and ask the same question.  Look at Photo-paint.  That program has been abandoned for a solid decade.  Look at the X6 update.  Photo-Paint got what 1 update? And everything new in CorelDraw is copied from old Illustrator features.  Corel didn't even change the name of the tool in one instance.  Same tool, same name, same function.  X6 by and large copied from Illustrator.

Yes, it's a tragedy that the only company that could have really given Adobe something to worry about just doesn't have what it takes to compete against Adobe.  Adobe allowed a lot of others to have a toehold in the business because Adobe was so expensive.  But not anymore.  Still, I think a lot of people will balk at just the idea of a subscription.  I personally also don't like it.  I like the idea of buying something and being done with it.  But this is too good to pass up.  Every update cycle I have to give serious thought to whether or not I will update.  For my personal use, I only updated every other update cycle but I have access to the newest releases via my job so I didn't worry about getting behind.  Now I will stay current across the board.  You even get access to both Mac and PC versions of all of Adobe's software.