[Macworld]

Post your comments for Adobe Creative Suite 6 goes on sale here

[motley]

Downloading CS6 trial right now. Can't wait to try out more than just the new Photoshop.

[TheFLP]

I wonder what happens if you subscribe to Creative Cloud or an individual app now, and decide to buy Photoshop CS7 the old fashioned way when it comes out. Do you get an upgrade price, or pay full retail?

What if you've been subscribing for several years?

All in all, $20 a month for Photoshop isn't such a bad deal when you're starting out. But if CS9 comes out 4.5 years from now you start to save money by going the traditional route. Even sooner if they slip to two years between upgrades.

And of course, if you're still happy with CS6 4.5 years from now, buying retail is a LOT cheaper.

edit: Hmmm, so they supposedly are going to an 12 month cycle now. That would make the economics work out better than buying every upgrade if they stick to the $200 price for Photoshop.

This post has been edited by TheFLP: 07 May 2012 - 07:04 AM

[zarmanto]

TheFLP, on 07 May 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

I wonder what happens if you subscribe to Creative Cloud or an individual app now...

I'd imagine, the same thing that happens when you rent a car... you give it back when your time is up, and have nothing to show for it but a bill. That's pretty much the whole point of the "rental" model.

TheFLP, on 07 May 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

All in all, $20 a month for Photoshop isn't such a bad deal when you're starting out.

Either I missed something, or you've misread the pricing. The only place that I see $20 listed is as the amount that you save off of the monthly fee, (for the first year only) if you are a current customer. That makes the lowest monthly fees $30, on a one year contract. ($360 total) After that first year, if you're not a student or teacher, then the price jumps back up to $50 per month. ($600)

Sounds to me like Adobe's "rental" model is exactly the same as rental models everywhere else... designed to look cheap to short-sighted customers, but extremely profitable in the long-run. As such, current customers would probably still do better by buying the boxed version at upgrade pricing -- unless of course, you're only expecting to use Photoshop for a very brief period during the next year, in which case you might be able to justify the $75 month-to-month pricing for that time.

This post has been edited by zarmanto: 07 May 2012 - 08:56 AM

[TheFLP]

zarmanto, on 07 May 2012 - 08:53 AM, said:

TheFLP, on 07 May 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

All in all, $20 a month for Photoshop isn't such a bad deal when you're starting out.

Either I missed something, or you've misread the pricing. The only place that I see $20 listed is as the amount that you save off of the monthly fee, (for the first year only) if you are a current customer. That makes the lowest monthly fees $30, on a one year contract. ($360 total) After that first year, if you're not a student or teacher, then the price jumps back up to $50 per month. ($600)

Yes, you missed something. The whole Creative Cloud is $50/mo, but you can get Photoshop by itself for $20.

Though I use InDesign from time to time, it's not something I'd spend another $30 for. Even with the first-year discount, I'm not sure I'll bother.

[spdavies]

Zarmanto said: (Sorry, don't know how to make the nice gray boxes) -
"Either I missed something, or you've misread the pricing. The only place that I see $20 listed is as the amount that you 'save' off of the monthly fee, (for the first year only) if you are a current customer. That makes the lowest monthly fees $30, on a one year contract. ($360 total)"

From the story - "Individual subscriptions for major packages such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc. are $20 per month based on a year's subscription, or $30 a month for month-to-month subscriptions."

I'm still not clear on the benefit of the subscription - even at $20, a one-year sub is $240 while a licensed upgrade is only $199.
I guess I must be missing something, also.

[TheFLP]

spdavies, on 07 May 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

I'm still not clear on the benefit of the subscription - even at $20, a one-year sub is $240 while a licensed upgrade is only $199.
I guess I must be missing something, also.

Don't forget that you have to pay full retail the first time. For the cost of a boxed copy of Photoshop CS6, someone starting out with the subscription model gets three years of CS6, 7 and 8.

OK, so I finally worked out the numbers. Assuming that

• 1. they stick to yearly upgrades,
  
• 2. the price ratio doesn't change,
  
• 3. CS6 is your first copy of Photoshop, and
  
• 4. you upgrade every damn time,

then a subscription would save you money until the 13th year: $3,100 for boxed software, $3,120 for the subscription.

So, I guess Adobe is aiming this at first-time buyers who are stupid enough to upgrade every year. Obviously that ain't us.

This post has been edited by TheFLP: 07 May 2012 - 02:27 PM

[leftnotrackswzdv]

I admit I am excited to see the newest betas for CS7.

[zarmanto]

spdavies, on 07 May 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

I'm still not clear on the benefit of the subscription - even at $20, a one-year sub is $240 while a licensed upgrade is only $199.
I guess I must be missing something, also.

Yeah... what he said.

spdavies, on 07 May 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

Zarmanto said: (Sorry, don't know how to make the nice gray boxes) -

Hit reply on any comment, and the system will insert the proper markup for you. You just have to avoid messing up the formatting while you're adding your comment, that's all... and the "Preview Post" button can help you out with that part.

This post has been edited by zarmanto: 08 May 2012 - 03:50 PM