At a press conference in Sydney last week to commemorate the opening of a new Adobe office, the software company’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, was questioned about why Australians must pay “up to $1400 more” than U.S. users for the popular Creative Suite, which includes programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator (and keep in mind this is a digital product, so shipping is no issue). As you can see in the video below, Narayen dodged reporters’ questions about pricing, instead focusing on Adobe’s shift to “Creative Cloud,” a subscription-based online software delivery system:
Narayen emphasized the “cloud”-based system as the future of Adobe, calling it “a very attractive opportunity right now in terms of pricing,” while obviously ignoring two reporters’ questions about pricing for traditional software in Australia.
Update: Adobe has reportedly lowered Australia’s subscription prices for Creative Cloud, but the question still remains as to the future of pricing for traditional, “pay once, use forever” boxed software. However, Australia’s parliament has summoned Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft for an inquiry this March to discuss technology prices.
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Come on competition! Adobe is giving you the opportunity to grab lots of customers. Their software is already highly overpriced. Having to “rent” it, makes it even more expensive.
It is arrogance that comes by having creating a monopoly, even as is becoming clear that most of their customers are not taking up the cloud system and prefer to use the licensing system, Adobe keeps pushing and pushing it. I am sure that a new underworld will be created with more and more customers dropping out. Cracked copies of all Adobes products will flourish more then they have ever before as Adobe begins to make it harder and harder for people that prefer the licensed system. Who wants to pay rent for the rest of their lives to Adobe …. and you better pay up, because when you stop you have nothing to fall back on. All your Adobe software will just stop working, you will become a slave to Adobe and their build in price rises. Good luck Adobe cloud subscribers.
It seems to me that by insisting that all users should move to the creative cloud, not because the users have asked for it, but because Adobe has decided that they are best positioned to determine our needs, they leave a big piece of the competitive landscape unoccupied. We’ll see if someone moves in to occupy the niche.