[UPDATE – These membership numbers are out of date. Please see the latest total number of Creative Cloud subscribers here.]
By now you have probably already heard about the benefits of Creative Cloud and how it compares vs. the traditional CS licensing…
Now it is being proven in the marketplace, Adobe reveals with its latest membership figures.
Last night the company divulged the latest member stats since the new offering was officially released in May 2012 – see the press release here.
The numbers are impressive: Over 2.5 million customers have now signed up worldwide, including over 500,000 paying subscribers – with an accelerating pace of almost 12,000 new paid members per week. For a new product only ten months old this is pretty strong adoption, even if most to date have joined for the benefits given in the free version of Creative Cloud.
[UPDATE – The number of paid CC subscribers has now surpassed 30 million, with the number of free members accounting for millions more.]
What’s perhaps even more impressive are some of the numbers that came out of Adobe’s analyst conference call that followed the news…
In a nutshell, the switch has flipped and more customers are now opting for Cloud membership over the traditional CS6 products… The company says: “Creative Cloud is quickly becoming mainstream, with the overwhelming majority of Creative purchases on Adobe.com now being Creative Cloud subscriptions.” Aside from affordability, this may also be because of all the exclusive updates that the Cloud software has received in recent months for many of the included applications, as well as other benefits like products you get only in Creative Cloud. Management also cites more and more awareness of the offering, as well as its viral nature with the very strong customer reviews.
What’s more, 92% of Creative Cloud subscribers are on an annual plan, versus month-to-month; and 81% of subscribers are licensed to the full Creative Cloud versus individual tool subscriptions. Adobe sees momentum continuing with sequential quarterly increases in the number of new subscribers throughout the year, and expects 1.25 million paid subscribers at the end of 2013, and 4 million subscribers by the end of 2015!
You can read the full transcript here.
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“Exciting Announcements to Come in May”
With the switch to annual Creative Suite releases in 2010, the spring season has become the point in the cycle where customers historically have been more cautious about buying a traditional CS product. That’s because folks don’t want to end up buying a static piece of software that quickly becomes obsolete with the next CS version being released.
But now with the advent and availability of the Creative Cloud, that point becomes moot – because free product upgrades are always included automatically, even with the month-to-month subscriptions.
Adobe in fact hinted this last night: “Creative Cloud is becoming the go-to destination for creative professionals, satisfying their need to access all their creative tools and services, as well as sync and store their work, and collaborate with their colleagues. Creative Cloud subscription growth is being driven by its attractive pricing as well as frequent product, feature and service enhancements we are providing. The value and rich features of Creative Cloud is also helping us achieve our goal of bringing in new customers, customers who have never before done business with Adobe.”
And: “Creative Cloud momentum continues to build. We are regularly releasing new innovation and are dramatically enhancing and simplifying the creative process for our customers. We have much more innovation coming to Creative Cloud, and we will make some exciting announcements at our MAX conference in May. We look forward to seeing you then.”
UPDATE (April 10th) – The company furthered this today: “The conference will feature highly anticipated MAX keynotes … that will explore the dramatically changing creative process and major advancements in technology. Adobe is expected to unveil a milestone update to Adobe Creative Cloud at the event.”
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The End of Boxed Versions
Finally, Adobe has confirmed what we reported here last week: “We are moving away from shrink-wrapped, boxed products. We will have some savings from that, and the fact that we don’t have to manufacture and ship that boxed product any more. The savings on the packaged products does, to some extent, get offset by the fact that we have storage costs and things like that through the Creative Cloud offering.”
Read more about this upcoming shift here:
Adobe to Discontinue Boxed Sales of Creative Suite (CS6) Software
If you’ve been thinking about going with the Cloud, Adobe says:
The new version‘s release date has not been announced, but there is a great way to get yourself to the front of the line. If you join Creative Cloud now, you will immediately receive the entire stable of currently shipping CS6 applications AND you will automatically receive the new versions of all your favorite Adobe applications as soon as they are available.”
And here’s a brand new spot from Adobe describing how it works:
See Also
- The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
- What are the differences between Adobe CC vs. CS6?
- Download free Adobe books (choose over 30 titles)
- Free! Watch 200+ new courses from Adobe MAX
- What’s new in Adobe CC? Compare versions vs. CS6
- Why does Creative Cloud get exclusive upgrades?
Do you have any questions about Creative Cloud? Check out our extensive Creative Cloud FAQ, or just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!
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