For all you freelancers, this is a good opportunity to change your billing -- I think you could probably add an Adobe subscription fee to your work; don't get greedy, just pro-rate it over the number of days you used a product for the project. You'll make money, and your clients will have a hard time complaining about it.<p>So, $4k project, 12 days, used Photoshop, = $49/(12/30) = $19.60.<p>This would be hard to complain about as a client. For you, on every project you do, if you're a typical small design shop where net income is roughly 10%, you'll be adding 5% to your net income. Or, if you need two or three programs, then 15% to your bottom line.<p>Of course, if you're a freelancer, then you're adding $19.60 to your bottom line. But, I bet it would be nice to add those up, especially since projects tend to run long in days, not hours.
What would be useful too is if a portion of your 'subscription' could count against a full purchase if you decide to buy. Let me pay $49/month for a couple months for indesign while I need it. If I decide that I want the full version, give me a prorated discount.
I think this is a good idea for Adobe. Maybe this will deter some people from downloading the software illegally. I only need to use PS once or twice a year, and the thought of downloading it illegally has crossed my mind several times. I haven't downloaded it illegally, instead I use it at my school's computer lab for free (besides what I pay for tuition). If I could download PS for $35 a month, I may just download it each time I need to use it and benefit from having the latest version on my own computer for a cheaper price.
I think subscription pricing fits the software model vary well. However, their pricing is stupid. If you pay for 6 months it would have been cheaper to just upgrade the product outright. Software is not like renting a car where you already know how to drive, you really need to know how to use it before it becomes useful and that takes time.<p>Edit: Now I could see paying that as a daily rate. If you work on this stuff 3-4 days a month it would cost less and feel like less of a ripoff to rent vs. buy.
I think this is a cracking idea for freelancers. I know we pay out close to 2k for the web premium version and its outdated every year now as they are releasing a new version nearly once a year!
Despite the Australian Dollar currently being higher than the US Dollar, Adobe are charging an extra 20% to Australians.<p>I used to use Photoshop daily, but I don't any more. I'd love to be able to use it though I would only use it casually. Their price point is still too high for me so I'm going without.
This looks great, but it is incredibly hard to figure out how to actually buy a subscription on that site. Go here - <a href="https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&" rel="nofollow">https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=...</a>;