Adobe announced earlier today that it will be transitioning to a subscription-only program for it’s Creative Suite family of programs. Adobe will sell of remaining copies of CS6, but will stop developing it. The new service has been dubbed Creative Cloud, and packs a ton of power.
This move is certainly a bold (if not inevitable) move for Adobe to make: It’s Creative Suite programs are amongst the most pirated software applications on the planet, and having a semi-affordable way to access Adobe’s programs could go a long way towards reducing the urge to slip on the ole’ eye-patch and parrot.
Creative Cloud will give you full access to Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Muse. Those programs alone retail close to a thousand dollars EACH, so the month-to-month subscription program will save you serious money up front, especially if you use more than one of these programs. You will also be able to access Acrobat, Audition, Bridge, Encore, Fireworks, Flash Builder Premium, Flash Professional, InCopy, Lightroom, Media Encoder, Prelude, and Speedgrade. I’ve been using old versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Audition for years, all three are exceptional utilities.
Adobe products have been out of my price league for years; I only have Photoshop and Audition because of an old job I had that allowed me to keep the copies. Keeping up with the current edition of each program would be a quick road to the poor house, so Creative Cloud will be a real boon to creative types: Your subscription will always stay current with whatever the newly developed sweetness is. No need to purchase new editions, it’s part of the price.
That being said, price may be a sticking point for some. A regular subscription will set you back $49.99 a month, which might be a little steep for casual users. People who own CS3 and up can sign on for a special rate of $29.99 per month, with student and educator rates at $19.99 a month. You can also subscribe to a single application for $19.99 per month, which wouldn’t be a bad way to go if all you were after was Illustrator. Adobe is providing a free 30-day trial for anyone who wants to take this new service out for a spin.
It’s too early to tell what impact, if any, this change in services will have on Adobe’s overall sales. For working professionals, this could be a huge step in the right direction. For opponents of digital-only content, this may be another step on a route they don’t want to take. Adobe Creative Cloud launches in June!