I just received an email that informed me that my CorelDraw Suite monthly subscription has almost TRIPLED!
I thought this must surely be in error and went to Coreldraw.com to see the latest pricing... has Corel gone bonkers? Are they actually TRYING to drive people towards Adobe products?
Both the once-off and subscription prices have escalated enormously. I don't think I'll be able to justify using Corel over Adobe to the boss anymore, especially after the v2019 fiasco where we literally found the software useless and a danger to productivity due to all the bugs...
Shouldn't Corel Corp be mending fences instead of burning bridges?
I'm looking for what new that would make me update...
This is crap that I've been asking to have put on the to do list for for 12 versions. It's not some impossible to code stuff. Even an artificial intelligence managing the development list would put this stuff at the top of the list.
There is just no point in adding things most of us will never use and doing nothing about the improving dare I say at this point in a software's development, PERFECTING the very basic stuff that is so important to everyday work.
I just can't see why I would pay the most expensive subscription when what I most need isn't being perfected, what I'll never use it added and when the product is being laughed at professionally for lacking in the basics after so many versions.
Obviously their are blockages within the management of COREL that are prevented the necessary effort and directing attention to "features" that look on the surface to be an essential reason to update. You can't tell me that there are not people within Corel that use Photoshop and know for a fact that PP is *** in need of a full code clean up from the bottom up!
I have to disagree with you on one point. I'm pretty sure no one at Corel really knows much about the program or how we use it anymore. The few old timers that are left are playing it safe to get to retirement and the new management and younger people are completely lost. They're new, young and have no core foundation of understanding, what we need, where we use it and why we need it.
I have replied and wrote a bit but I think I used too many links and got caught by a spam filter.
You are not altogether wrong but Corel have an army of creatives. To suggest the people that actually understand are not in the business when it has ~500 employees seems totally out there. More likely they are not being heard.
No not really, at one time Corel had a production department that used CorelDRAW, a few years later their materials were being done with Adobe products. When you've interacted with people who after a detailed discussion it was clear that they had no basic concept of their own technology let alone core graphics technology it becomes clear.
Have you tried the new tone curve in PP, the new object docker, the keep desktop objects on layer or the new font manager? These are not broken features these are features that deft logic and basic understanding of technology and the installed base. These are just a few but I could continue the list until you'd have to scroll several times.
First thing I do with every new version is check if they have finally done something with the curves tool.
No one would love to dump Photoshop more than me! I currently only renew my the subscription when I have a project that needs the speed of PS to manage.
I'm very focused on the painting of walls ATM and not pixels.
Of course there is an elephant in the room. COVID19 GLOBALLY! Everyone is in a tough spot. I would imagine that this is the sort of time people skip on updates for a cycle or two.
I've been doing and will continue, renovating a home. So I have no real feel for the market. And here we have zero cases of community transmission.
Decline in agency revenuesFor most companies in the sector, three fifths (or even one half) has become the rule because advertising investments (on which a percentage is taken) have melted like snow in the sun. Depending on the agencies, the figures we have had access to show an impact, over April 2020, of -54% and -91%. The brands in the portfolio explain this reasonably wide variation; some are more affected than others depending on their sector of activity. www.intotheminds.com/.../
Do you think businesses are going to be buying lots of software in the next 12 months? Has there been any threads talking about this?
If you don't watch anything else you should watch this bit (time referenced)
youtu.be/PGrIYFiN1cQ
Additional
The time reference was stripped from the URL. That's a bit silly as a forum setting.add ?t=1932
I've watch this over 2 days in bits. He's the "Elon" of video. I doubt you will disagree with anything he says.
Thanks, Yani. Great interview. I wish more CEOs and investment firms would think "how do we solve problems" versus "what is the shortest path to an ROI".
Most corporate heads lack the ability to balance what they do well with what the don't do well. Keeping your profitable business running in a profitable manner while you use those funds to finance future ventures.
Leading by developing the individual talents of the staff, knowing what you don't do well and augmenting that shortcoming with people who shore up that weakness.
Let's apply that to CorelDRAW. Does anyone on this forum think that anyone in Corel Corporate Management can identify one core thing that from V1 to X5 that CorelDRAW did well enough to be considered invaluable to the graphics designer?
Okay, now I have to call Corel. I've been on the "old" subscription plan (the $99 a year version). So now, in order to get OFF the subscription and stop at v. 2020, how much do I have to pay? So there is no true "upgrade" pricing any longer? You either spend the $500 up front for one-time purchase or half that for a so-called "upgrade" which is really a subscription?
This sucks. I have used Corel for personal use since v. 2 and until I lost my job to COVID, we used X7 at work. This is probably the end of a long history with Corel for me.
Just stick with the version that works for you. Stop giving Corel your money for things you probably don't need and for changes that make your life more difficult. Vote with your feet. Then the onus is on Corel to make the $500 purchase worthy of your money. Like in the old days, most people would skip a version or two, but now the bar is so much higher because there is no upgrade pricing. So Corel will fail if they simply trot out the same old s h i t year after year.
The bright lining for Corel in this is that there are SO MANY screwed up things still in 2020 that they can just fix bugs and broken recoding and really improve the product!
BTW aftet 25 years of CorelDRAW use I've met my first user that never uses multiple page documents.