I just stumbled upon THIS LINK which is part says of CorelDraw, "Later this year, upgrades (download and box products) will no longer be available. Add Upgrade Protection to your purchase to get future versions at a fraction of the cost or choose a subscription, to always stay current." I did not take part in the webinar from earlier today, which I assume detailed what will happen later this year. Does anyone know? Does this mean Corel is moving to a subscription-only model for Draw? Am I correct to assume that anyone who has a licensed product before a subscription-only model begins will be able to keep that license, to use that version, regardless of his or her subscription status?
Thanks for your time.
Bob, some additional searching leads me to conclude that your interpretation of the statement is accurate as to final result. Corel's statement DOES report that both "upgrade protection" AND subscriptions will be available going forward, language which seems to rule out a subscription-only model.
My searching found THIS PAGE, on which the new "upgrade protection program" is defined this way:
From the response to a different question on the same page I infer that from now on, Draw users who allow their "upgrade protection programs" (formerly called "Premium Memberships") to expire will have to purchase the full version of the software in order to obtain the latest release. No more paying $99 every couple of years to jump back on the upgrade train. Unlike subscribers, however, upgrade protected users will own the last version of the software they received under the program they allowed to lapse.
Thats not what the wording above says though Bob. It tells me Upgrades will not be available. Period. The only way to get one is via the Upgrade Program, which is in effect a subscription model, in all but name. So a one off purchase of an upgrade from the previous version will not be available.
If they mean something different then they need to say it differently.
Upgrade Protection is available as a subscription, it actually uses this word in the item description at the checkout at a cost of £110 ON TOP of the £599 full or £299 u/g purchase price.
Corel are not being straight with us.
$99 every couple of years? The upgrades have been costing double that for a long time. Previously a full version of CorelDRAW would be released roughly once every 2 years. Now they're expecting us to pay $199 EVERY YEAR for what they're passing off as an "upgrade." The differences between the 2018 version and 2019 version appear to be very minimal.I saw some claims of performance improvements in version 2019 but new versions of software almost always have greater computing performance requirements. CorelDRAW 2019 looks hardly any different than version 2018 and might actually run even slower than 2018 did. That doesn't entice me to want to spend nearly $200 on it.This change on upgrade policy seems sleazy. Adobe is able to get away with charging Creative Cloud users over $50 per month on their subscription system because the company is almost a monopoly due to several applications many of us can't avoid using. In all fairness they do pack a lot of value in that $50+ per month package (the commercial fonts alone via Typekit/Adobe Fonts are worth a fortune). Corel does not have that same kind of leverage.
Ironically, I saw this today and wondered the same thing. I have a very bad feeling about it.
I believe the upgrade or premium or bla bla bla, call it what you will, has been in constant change. At one point premium membership gave you more images, clips, fonts, etc. and a path to upgrade. That has changed. Actually this "program membership" has changed.
It is my understanding now that if you join now you get on the fly updates and features and the next release all bundled into membership. A path to being right on top of the game always.
If you do not join you can pay to upgrade to the next version only. Only 2019 will qualify for upgrade pricing to 2020, 2020 to 2021, etc., all others pay full version price.
Or the subscription price per month.
That is my take on it.