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“Adobe Unveils New ‘CC’ Release (CS7) Exclusively in Creative Cloud”
Adobe Unveils New ‘CC’ Release (CS7) Exclusively in Creative Cloud
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I have an Adobe Web Premium CS5 suite, which does not include InDesign. Do I qualify for the first-year $9.99 a month subscription for InDesign, or am I only allowed to use this promotional pricing on specific tools that I already own?
Hi Anette, that’s a good question. The answer is if you own any previous tool or suite from CS3 to CS6, then you qualify for Adobe’s current promotional pricing for either the complete Creative Cloud ($20-$30), or just a single standalone CC tool ($10).
So it doesn’t really matter what particular product you own from those releases, to get or upgrade to any of the current tools. The terms of the offer say:
“… available to customers who own a Creative Suite edition or individual product, version CS3 or later (CS3.x, CS4, CS5.x, or CS6) …”
Being somewhat long in the tooth, this smacks very much of the control exercised by companies such as DEC, IBM, Berthold, Scangraphic, Wang, Lanier, Itek, et al. All software was licensed and if you terminated your service contract (i.e., subscription) then your right to use the software you had bought (at prohibitive cost in combination with your now useless proprietary hardware) was also terminated.
Microsoft having seen the killing Sky and Virgin are making in the subscription market and have also decided to follow this extreme option on perpetual licensing by initially making you pay for replacement versions of Office if your system died and not being able to move the license to a new machine. I forecast a very steep increase in monthly cost and the removal of perpetual licenses within three years. Once Adobe and Microsoft have the corporate and professional user base by the throat. The small time users – don’t worry they’re not interested in you, we’re talking volume licensing deals here.
Two points of interest, when this seismic shift happened in the word processing market – WordPerfect lost its global crown and Office took over – it would take a massive mind shift though for Quark, Onone or Corel to make an impact on such a conservative market.
Occasionally I need to install an old version of Office or CS – If I didn’t have the discs from years ago – how would I do that? (I’ve already had issues with Adobe where I had to do this and the DVD was cracked and I couldn’t re-install from disc – ended up upgrading the software as they didn’t have a copy of the media pack I could buy (this was only back 9 months at the time).
How are we going to ensure compatibility with older clients in the interim period – just look at the previous versions of InDesign with INX and IDML. Will there be a facility to switch off upgrades from downloading and continue to pay license fees whilst the software remains at a previous level for compatibility purposes? Or will it be a case of everyone will be on the same cloud version and if you work off a previous version on a perpetual license you’ll just have to suffer any file format issues as you are not on the latest version.
I accept this is going to happen whether I complain or not and perhaps software images are not the way to go whether delivered on polycarbonate or across the net (too big) – but you just wait until you have a software re-install problem at two in the morning and you’ve got no install discs and see how far you get with support…. Cross my palm with silver, chum – funny how we never talk about Scitex anymore….
Kind Regards
Brad
Hello Brad, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Adobe has said they will keep prior major versions available to download through the cloud, starting from CS6. So as part of their membership, users will have the option to download/install/run both older and newer releases as needed, on the same machine.
As you no doubt know, there are techniques for saving back to older Adobe file formats when necessary. They’re not “100%” because older products aren’t aware of newer features, but they typically work okay.
About InDesign – as is customary, InDesign CC will use a newer and different file format than InDesign CS6. So, the procedure you mention will continue to be the solution.
Also, you may not have known, but installing any update(s) from the cloud is strictly optional. The user has control of when and if it happens, and can remain on the version they wish.
Finally, on the notion of future steep price hikes, Adobe has said they have no intention of doing that as it would be counterproductive to the continued adoption of the Cloud… As more customers join, they are actually able to lower the pricing and that is what they have done historically.
Hi
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I didn’t know about the option to not install upgrades or the capability to re-install older versions. In most repro/design companies it is essential to go with the latest version of software which is available. I’m probably overly sensitive to compatibility concerns, for example where expensive hardware will only run with specific software versions (hold your hand up Quark and HP), compatibility with other users (last week, having to re-install Acrobat 9 as a client didn’t want UA compatibility or tagging in Acrobat 11 PDFs) – we wanted the two machines to see the same compatibility report.
If Adobe keeps to their promises that’s great, I’m afraid I’m ever the skeptic as prevailing business priorities frequently overtake previous decisions. (Thank you Microsoft for all that wasted time in the Expression suite and thank you Adobe the investment in Livemotion…)
Can you tell me the date when the shrinkwrapped DVD is likely to be phased out and whether a perpetual license download will allow you to burn a DVD backup (as I seems to recall these being larger than DVD).
I think the solution will be a shrinkwrap of CS6 or backup DVD of the download plus a CC subscription – well that’ll make Adobe happy anyway!
Kind Regards
Brad
Sure Brad. And actually the shrinkwrapped or boxed versions have already been phased out for CS6 – Adobe stopped those at the same time that the CC release was announced… You can read more about that here.
However, you can still make backup DVD copies of any CS6 download package. The largest size of any single CS6 installer is about 6.2GB, which is smaller than the 8.5GB capacity of a Dual Layer DVD disc.
@Joe-Dobe
The comparison with Netflix, cell phone and internet is completely crazy, that’s like comparing apples with oranges. They are monthly services, much like utilities.
If you want to compare renting with owning then do the world a favour and compare apples to apples. Renting Adobe software, for professionals, is like a carpenter being forced to rent a screwdriver or a hammer on a monthly basis. It’s like an accountant renting the use of his calculator, or a photographer having to rent his camera.
Nobody would rent Nikons if that was the only way you could use them, they’d start using Canons. Likewise with screwdrivers, if one manufacturer said you can’t buy a screwdriver anymore, carpenters wouldn’t rent it, they use a different brand.
The big issue issue that seems to get lost here is the Adobe have a monopoly on industry standard creative software, so once CS6 stops being sold, there is no other option but to do what they say and rent.
They need to do this otherwise nobody with a sound mind will ever chose to rent rather than buy. Adobe admit this themselves otherwise they’d run the two licensing options side by side.
It is a very aggressive move that has annoyed more people than it has pleased.
If you really are pro – hiring your work tools, I guess you’ll be happy to pay for other similar services each month too – such as a fee for web browsing, using your email client, listening to iTunes, using Word, using your calendar, playing games. You could possibly end up with 50+ monthly payments each and every month for the rest of your entire life if this way of using software was embraced by everyone.
And why stop at per month charges? Why don’t we invite Adobe to charge us an extra fee each time we with to use dodge or burn, or perhaps a small fee for each filter, or perhaps every time you use a gradient you get charged. At the end of the month they could add on an ‘extras’ for all the filters you used.
@Joe-Dobe
First, I am not an Adobe hater nor do I believe the vast number of people posting comments on this topic are Adobe haters. What we are expressing is our concern about the distribution and licensing models that they are moving forward with. If you are right about the model taking hold, and you probably will be, I will ensure you that these reasonable monthly rates will increase dramatically in 3 years. You will find yourself longing for the days when you could buy the product. This move to the cloud is the battle for the corporate customer and once they have established this model with them, you and I will not matter.
Flash Pro getting some well-deserved updates and a nice facelift alongside InDesign is a late albeit welcome change (I mean come on, 64-bit, it’s been like 10 fricking years), same with After Effects’ C4D integration and the Edge tools actually gaining some context. There aren’t too many revolutionary game changers introduced so far in CC, it’s more a bugfix, performance, and small feature release. The main point of focus seems to be the switch to the “cloud” model, much to the dismay of the users. As most people who have expressed criticism so far stated, the most likely scenario is that a significant chunk of the user base will stick to older suite licenses in protest, until Adobe either dies out from the lack of sales or decides to comply with their wishes and make CC available on a permanent subscription basis.
Personally, I’d even be okay with it, if the price wasn’t so horrendous. No matter how low the price is advertised to be for existing customers and with various reductions, it’s still a healthy fortune. Especially for non-US customers. A standard CC subscription without a yearly commitment costs around 70 USD, which somehow mysteriously translates into 92, NINETY TWO, Euros. With taxes and additional fees, that’s just over 1100 € for a single year. And that’s assuming Adobe doesn’t jack up the price in the future. That taken into account, we’re sitting at roughly 1500 USD for a single year of CC subscription. For reference, a single-use subscription of CS6 is currently priced at 2600$, and that’s without any academic or volume discounts being applied. You literally end up paying more for a CC subscription in one and a half bloody years.
I could imagine a system like this working, but for God’s sake, fix the pricing first. I’m fairly certain there isn’t a large userbase interested in the “cloud services” and the minimal storage space being offered with Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google already being healthy competitors in the “cloud market” who offer way more for practically free, and the amount of features introduced in CC aren’t really worth it to ditch a CS license just yet. (I mean come on, rounded rectangles?) A much healthier and respectable alternative would be to ditch the cloud system and the whole “let’s be Dropbox” thing, and instead offer a selection of CC applications for 5 bucks a pop or something, with the opportunity to purchase a “permanent” license for an extended fee, valid until the end of time. Without activation and having to rapidly phone home.
Another thing worth noting, is that I explicitly remember Adobe stating upon the release of CS6 that they’d be switching to a “rapid release cycle,” with CS6.5 supposedly being released this year. Instead they axed the suite entirely and introduced the CC. Eh.
Hey Q, not sure at all where you’re getting those pricing figures, but they are not correct. In the US, the annual plan for Creative Cloud costs US$49.99 a month, with a 40% discount for upgraders from a previous CS version. You then have to add sales tax on top of that, which is typically around 8%, making the total price $54.
Overseas, like in France or Germany, that membership costs €61.49, but that is with 20+% of VAT already included in the price. Upgrades get a 40% discount there as well.
If you look at the month-to-month plan instead, then it’s $81 vs. €92.24, both with taxes & fees included.
Comparing single-app subscriptions (for just say Photoshop CS6/CC), it’s $21.60 vs. €24.59, after tax.
So there are definitely still price differences – but once you account for the different quoting conventions, they are closer. In the past, Adobe has offered explanations as to why pricing is different overseas.
Finally, on the notion of “phoning home” – for annual members using the new CC release, the tools will now work for up to 4 months continuously without needing any revalidation or online connection, which should allay most concerns there.
Sorry about that, my point was a bit unclear I’d imagine.
>Overseas, like in France or Germany, that membership costs €61.49, but that is with 20+% of VAT already included in the price. Upgrades get a 40% discount there as well.
Quite, however I was referring to the plans /without/ an annual commitment. The 61€ price only applies to subscribers who sign a one-year commitment to using the service, without any option of cancellation for the said period. The current price of a month of subscription if you decide to opt for a pay per month plan, instead of paying a year upfront, is 92.24€ per month. This is also subject to any further pricing increments Adobe decides to tack on, which they have neither denied nor confirmed (yet). And correct me, but I see no sign of educational or volume discounts being offered for the month-to-month either, at least for the present moment.
In any case however, it’s generally a question of /how long/ does it take for the cloud to cost you more, not if. In the case that you decide to go with a monthly subscription for the suite without an annual commitment, it takes only a year or two (in the EU) with the current pricing. Most studios or institutions buy (or in this case, lease) software licenses for far longer periods, and even if minor upgrades are included in the price, it’s not exactly worth it. It’s also rather hilarious that Adobe charges extra for “overseas” pricing, when in fact you are being given a leased copy of the same service along with the same products. The only reason why taxes and different pricing could apply is due to shipping and licensing differences between several countries, and the fact that Adobe is US-based.
As for the 99 days of activation, fair point, however it only applies when purchasing an annual license with a commitment. (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html) Other subscribers or those who decided to opt for a pay-by-month basis need to activate more frequently, and it’s been shown by third party sources and testers that the software checks for activation way more often than it is described in the “official” documents.
The CC software checks for reactivation more frequently than every 99 days so that it can reset its count… In other words, it will check after a few weeks have gone by – and when it succeeds, it gives a fresh 99 days + 1 month.
That way, you have a rolling window of several months offline with the products working fine. You get a brand new 99-day period each time it successfully revalidates.
Adobe has stated their intention to increase the length of this period to up to 180 days (six months) without needing any Internet connection or access.
Obviously with short-term subscribers instead the software needs to confirm monthly because, well, they’re month-to-month.
Hi
Interesting interview 10 years ago projected this cloud development in the context of the development of nanotechnology in that it would mean restricting access to computers because of the dangers inherent in the public having that much power in their hands…I guess we just have to see if that in fact is what develops.
s.
I guess this is where I and Adobe say good bye. I currently have two versions of CS6 product suites. Design and Web Premium, and Production Premium. I have been upgrading and keeping my products up to date from the CS4 versions. I don’t do that much production work professionally with the the Cs suite of products to justify a continuous subscription. So, it’s not paramount for me to always be up on the very latest and greatest. Still I have always upgraded to the most current versions. However, when I invest in things I like to own them, and not just be leasing them. If I’m going to spend upwards of 1200 for a product for two years, I do like to feel at some point I can own it, and if I decide not to subscribe anymore, it doesn’t just vanish and can’t be used anymore. And that is basically what Adobe is moving to now. And the idea doesn’t sit well with me.
For businesses who would subscribe for their employers, yes it could work and could be cheaper for them. But for the individual, trying to do right and buy the product and shell out their own money for it, it ultimately just doesn’t work. At least not for me. If after 5 years and $3,000 ($600 year * 5) investment in a product and one day I can’t for some reason subscribe anymore, it’s untenable to me, that all that money is gone and completely useless. So for me, I’ll quit now. And keep using my CS6. It’s a great product as it is. I’m sure it’ll serve well for years to come. Except if Adobe suddenly decides that the products won’t work anymore if you don’t migrate to this their cloud offering. And from the look of things, it doesn’t seem so impossible for them to do.
Hi Eric, thanks for your comment. The math for you will work out a bit differently because you already have two CS6 suites, compared to someone who is coming in from scratch with no software.
Adobe is offering CS6 users a deeply-discounted first-year offer to upgrade to CC, but realizes that not everyone will opt for it so that’s why they are continuing to also sell and support CS6 as well.
CC also has the advantages of low upfront price plus all upgrades being included at no additional charge, versus a static version of CS6. So if you compare that to the cost of buying a Premium Suite and keeping it upgraded, then it can be attractive.
Lastly, Adobe has said they are working on solutions so that CC users can continue to open and access their files even after a subscription has ended – and expects to have more news shortly.
or other companies will develop a non cloud pay once version (similar to C-?) for hobbyists like me.
Note that for hobbyists, Adobe is looking at offering a special bundle package that would potentially include both Photoshop and Lightroom (only).
@Eric
It is scary to think that my Master Collection CS6 may be one day unusable if Adobe were to require you to go into their cloud. I have the boxed version, so I’m assuming I’ll be safe there, but I do agree, it is something they can easily do and may actually decide to do that. If they do, I’ll have pity on them. Not all of use are rich to keep up with the updates and CC just doesn’t seem to be viable when you decide to not subscribe anymore.
I think that once a person has paid enough subscription that would pay for a full complete version of the software as if they just bought the boxed version, they should accommodate them should they cancel their subscription. I still don’t feel as if Adobe really thought this through. I doubt they understand that people will in fact prepay for a few years. My phone is paid up until 2016 so I can use that extra money for other things or to save it and prepay again 5 years the next time it comes up. They need to offer that as an option. They’ll see how many will choose options to pay 5 years in advance, 3 years, 2 years. even 1 year.
If they had that option now, I could have prepaid up for the entire year at once, and not need to make monthly payments or have monthly payments taken out of my account. I won’t have to worry for that year. Heck with what I paid this year for the boxed version. I could have paid a 2-year subscription and only had to add an additional $200. It’s an option they can offer if they really cared about their customers.
I did contact them about offering such things, but so far they’ve not responded to my efforts. I’ve already had issues with errors popping up saying I had to uninstall and reinstall due to some language pack issues and it angered me that I had to jump through several hoops to get it cleared up.
Hey Jane, the first part of that is misinformation, or simply FUD. With any CS6 product you have a licensing agreement to run it perpetually. While changes to third-party operating systems or hardware could render your software inoperable, there is nothing Adobe is ever going to do deliberately to make your software stop working.
In fact, they have said they will continue to sell CS6 indefinitely, offer the free CS6 trial downloads, and are planning to support it through the next o/s releases for Windows and Mac.
Finally, something else to clear up – you can indeed pay a year (or two or three) in advance with CC or Creative Cloud, if that’s what you prefer… You can even lock in your price if you’re worried that Adobe will raise it (where we see them continuing to lower the cost instead).
Just buy as many Creative Cloud 12-Month Prepaid Cards as you want now, and activate them as needed. Done.
It’s very simple to do if your preference is to pay it all upfront instead of smaller amounts monthly. So that CC option is already available today, although note that none of the upgrade discounts for existing CS customers are offered via that route.
Hope this helps.
I can’t find this price anywhere on Adobe.com?
Don’t need full Cloud? Get Photoshop CC for $19/month
Hello again Malik, you’ll find that $10 Photoshop CC upgrade offer on our Coupons & Promotions page, which lists all of Adobe’s current specials on various products…
Just click on “Learn more.”
Not pleasing at all …. In a nutshell, I / we, will never own a new version of the Adobe suites.
Hi Martin, Adobe says will continue to sell and support CS6 indefinitely for those that must have perpetual licenses, but states they have no plans to issue any new releases of the Creative Suite.
All new creative tool versions, upgrades, features, enhancements, and future products will go into the Creative Cloud, starting with the “CC” release due out next week.
my hardware I just bought and probably won’t change for another 9 or so years. so I can’t go happily upgrading hardware on the whim of software upgrades.
that means for me, software upgrades are going to be few and far between… and I am going to have to prefer a boxed product. I am hoping the video cards and cpu’s and memory supported won’t exceed my new desktop system (2013) any time soon.
this development doesn’t please me either. that means I am out for upgrades. I depend upon boxed product, because in what I do
– I don’t always know what my net income is going to be like
– upgrades come few and very far between usually – I had to save up for a while during good times to get cs5
– cloudware has too much vapor and not enough substance – I need nice reliable discs. and you can’t rely on downloads sometimes due to packets being dropped unless you have a GOOD SOLID DOWNLOADER. especially when it comes to the size of 6GB per installer (there are 5 discs I think in cs5). and you need some time to download each installer – dsl 2:18:39.965, dialup forget anything over 1MB, Cable 00:19:24.795. can possibly end up with broken installs with downloads. I like eliminating that possibility.
– I am not a corporate employee like adobe assumes I am. I can’t simply go out an buy this on a whim with some company’s money.
– I wanted to purchase this for personal, not through my business, but adobe insisted on a business name when I created my account years ago (adobe please change this).
– I too realize this could be a gold mine for adobe, and lock out the little guys like me who are desperate to get the adobe product to do what they need to do because for some things it does, it’s the best tool around (depending on what you want to do). I use a number of tools to get the job done as an engineer/developer/web designer/business owner.
Welcome Jim, thanks for your thoughts. Some good news for you:
* Upgrading with CC is always optional – you decide when and if you will do it. You are in control of that, in concert with your hardware. By the way, here are the current Adobe CC System Requirements to be sure… Some specifications have increased, though they can vary depending on which applications you want to use. If for some reason your computer isn’t up to spec for running a CC version, the CS6 release will continue to be available for all Cloud members to download, install, and use.
* A new downloader is coming very soon. The new CC Desktop App will be released next week, replacing both the Adobe Application Manager and the Creative Cloud Connection. The new Desktop App is a much-improved program.
* Even so, any CC member can still request a hardcopy disc from Adobe. Yes, it’s little known – but if downloads are an issue for you, then they will send you a preburned DVD with a recent copy of all the CC software. Just contact them (via live online chat is usually fastest/easiest) and ask nicely. :)
* If you’re not sure what your month-to-month income or spending capacity will be and prefer to pay for a year upfront rather than monthly, then you can sign up for Adobe’s 12-Month Prepaid CC Plan.
* Either way, for a lot of customers it’s more affordable to work with lower monthly or yearly payments then to try to come up with $1,900 for a Creative Suite, as it used to be.
* But if the Creative Cloud still isn’t for you and you must have perpetual licensing, then last year’s CS6 will continue to be sold and supported by Adobe indefinitely.
Hope this helps!
can you mix cs5 and cs7? (for instance, to test cs7 on your hardware)? or can I just install adobe edge stuff alongside my cs5? and have both work together? or will they conflict due to the installer(s)?
was hoping to reduce my monthly costs… I am on a TIGHT budget.
No worries Jim – you can definitely install the new Adobe “CC” release (CS7) together on the same computer(s) as CS6, CS5, or any previous CS version you may have – they will coexist alongside each other no problem. You can install and run them independently, side-by-side.
Actually, I find the Adobe move to force any users who want new software features in the future to their cloud-based versions both wonderful and inspiring.
The very idea of planting all of our development in cloud-based versions, that will increasingly be subject to hackers; “mistakes” where customer data is released by the parent companies; firewall/bandwith issues; or even willful attacks by nation states/groups to bring down sites is really dumb for anyone thinking out just a few years. We don’t want any of our data or configs in someone else’s “cloud”, thank you very much.
And the fellow discussing the need to have prior versions on hand to reinstall when necessary is also right on the mark. It won’t be easy to do so via Adobe’s cloud, once they get a few versions out.
Good luck with this Adobe.
This particular Creative Suite and various Adobe package owner (not renter) for 10+ years — (who recommends software to creative customers) — will now be looking for alternatives. There may not be many alternatives today — but forcing users into a path that they do not want; will indeed inspire new software choices.
For this, I thank you.
Thanks for commenting Bill. Here are the details on the file & data security that Adobe uses:
How secure is the storage space on Creative Cloud?
Also, there is no issue with previous versions. All prior major releases (back to CS6) will be kept freely available in a downloadable collection for Cloud members. So you can install and run the new Adobe CC together with CS6, plus CS5, CS4, CS3, etc. all on the same computer with no problem if you like.
Do Creative Cloud members have access to older versions of Adobe creative apps?
In other words, that’s better than before, or certainly no worse.
Hello,
This year I purchased the Adobe Creative Cloud and installed it on a personal computer running a Mac OS. Recently I have also purchased a second personal computer running a Windows OS. Is it possible for me to also install CC on my Windows machine?
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
-Elise
Yes Elise, you should be able to run on both Windows and Mac OS (dual-platform) with Adobe CC, although not with CS6 and earlier… See here for more details:
How Many Systems Can You Install or Run Adobe Software On?
I have a CC subscription that I believe is for MAC, that has CS5.5. I also have CS6 on a Windows machine. How can we access updates for the Windows machine? Our production artist only uses the Windows machine.
I also would like to know how we might add Illustrator and Photoshop to another IMAC running Windows in Bootcamp.
I feel more comfortable talking with someone on the phone if that could be done.
Thank you so very much
Dean
Greetings Dean, there’s some good news for you – all Adobe CC subscriptions are multi-platform, meaning you can use them on a Mac or PC, or both!
See:
How to Move or Reinstall Adobe Creative Cloud Between Computers
What if I want to add a computer? We have a Windows based machine using CS6, we also have an IMac using CS5.5.
I would like to add another IMAC using Bootcamp and running Windows since I have screen printing RIP software that is solely used in Windows.
Sure Dean – each CC Individual license that you purchase can install & run on up to two computers of any kind…
But if you are managing a group and want more flexibility and functionality, then you may want to look into Creative Cloud for Teams instead.
Finally, keep in mind that with Creative Cloud, your machines don’t need to be running any previous CS version; CC is all you need. Also, there is some file compatibility between the two releases.