I have been using Corel Draw since version 3 (not X3, but version 3) and one of the reasons I use Corel Draw is that it's not Adobe. It's easier, less snobby and far less expensive. However with this new trend towards subscription pricing I may be forced to drop Corel Draw. Subscription pricing is bad for the consumer on so many levels. When I pay for software, I expect to be able to own it and use it whenever I want for as long as I want. But now Corel wants to charge me extra for that convenience? No F*ing way!Since I qualify for the upgrade pricing, I can get X6 for $180, AND keep and use it indefinitely. If I use it for 3 years, that's $60 a year. But if I go for the subscription pricing I would have to pay nearly $200 and have access to it for only one year. Where is the value in that? Also, on occasion I have skipped versions because of bugs that were introduced and not addressed in a timely manor in the new version or Corel introduced features that were of no benefit to me. I can care less about "Website design software" or "Complex script support". When moving form version 9 to version 11, I had to convince Corel to give me 10 instead since 11 broke some of the features I used in 9. Yeah, I paid Corel for an older version. And version 6 offers me nothing of value over version 5. I tried the demo and found it was even close to being worth the $180 upgrade price. Trace is still pathetic (slow, and inaccurate), very few bugs were fixed in Draw and Photo-paint is virtually identical to the old version. And how about adding/fixing little things like:
Corel claims "Early access to new features and updates". Yeah so that the subscription holders could be the beta testers and find the bugs for them. No thank you. Despite all this I still love my CorelDraw but if they continue to move closer to the Adobe model I will be moving further away from Corel Draw.
Dear Corel,
Please remove the gun from the OP's head so that he doesn't feel forced to buy your software.
Sincerely,
Everyone
Gary Hair said: Dear Corel, Please remove the gun from the OP's head so that he doesn't feel forced to buy your software. Sincerely, Everyone
This forum needs a like button. Well said.
Mike and Gary,My point is that if Corel forced the subscription-only purchase option then they would be alienating a long time and loyal customer (and I suspect others as well). Of course I do not feel that Corel is "holding a gun to my head" but if I didn't have the purchase-only option then there is a much smaller incentive for me to continue using Corel products. It's simply not fair to change the rules of the game mid season. However, if Corel keeps the option to purchase outright then I couldn't care less about the subscription based offering.
I only posted this here as Corel has no way to contact them directly with such comments via their website or via email and I know that Corel employees visit here on occasion. Finally, thanks to those of you who pointed out that currently there is still the option to purchase the software outright. David
aerorelix said:My point is that if Corel forced the subscription-only purchase option
Then they would be alienating everyone.
They won't do it. They've said they won't do it. I believe them. I like that they have it as an option, even though we choose not to use it that way.
Mike,
As I also stated, if they keep the purchase option then I too am fine with the subscription option if others choose to go that route.
David
aerorelix said:Since I qualify for the upgrade pricing, I can get X6 for $180, AND keep and use it indefinitely. If I use it for 3 years, that's $60 a year. But if I go for the subscription pricing I would have to pay nearly $200 and have access to it for only one year. Where is the value in that?
Besides what other users pointed as extra features, if you have Premium membership you will upgrade automatically your software, not only X6.1, X6.2 etc but also X7, X8 and more. Also, if you access corel.com using CorelConnect you will have a lot of extar stuff (fonts, photos, clipart, textures, etc,) ready for download, But is just an option, it's not mandatory. You can use your program with Standard Membershp (as all previous versions) and you will have the updates for fix errors for free (as always).
aerorelix said:My point is that if Corel forced the subscription-only purchase option then they would be alienating a long time and loyal customer (and I suspect others as well).
On the contrary, Corel announced officially that has no plans to "move to the cloud" or change to a subscription-only mode. Read the post about it: http://community.coreldraw.com/blogs/gerard/archive/2013/05/08/corel-is-all-about-giving-users-choice.aspx and http://community.coreldraw.com/blogs/gerard/archive/2013/05/16/welcome-cs-users.aspx
aerorelix said:I didn't have the purchase-only option then there is a much smaller incentive for me to continue using Corel products. It's simply not fair to change the rules of the game mid season.
Of course most user feel the same. But don't worry, the Premium membership is just an option.
aerorelix said:I only posted this here as Corel has no way to contact them directly with such comments via their website or via email and I know that Corel employees visit here on occasion.
The Corel Team read this forum dialy, and you can send an e-mail to the right people according the subject (ie, programmers, customer service, quality, etc). including Director or Product Manager.
Hi Ariel,
While I don't post often I often see you and Ron post very informative and level headed comments and responses often. For that, I thank you and others here as well. I am now 100% clear that I will still have the purchase only option. I have one followup comment. You stated: "If you have Premium membership you will upgrade automatically your software, not only X6.1, X6.2 etc but also X7, X8 and more." This is true... sort of. If Corel takes more than a year to update to the next full version then I am losing out financially. As stated in my original post the upgrade cost is $180 while the annual premium subscription cost is $200. If I use my current version for two years then my total cost is still $180 but with a subscription plan I would be paying $400. To me, for the type of work I do, the "extras" and "enhancements" are not worth the extra money (granted, for some it might be worth it). In addition, I often skip versions if I feel the new features are of no benefit to me or if bugs have not been fixed. This is why I'm still using X5.
Thanks again!