OT: Corporate madness - Adobe software to be subscription only

Mon May 13 12:50:11 PDT 2013

2013-05-13-01T19:50Z

"Everybody wins . . .." as far as Adobe Systems Incorporated and some
others might perceive it.  From my perspective - and, perhaps, my
employer's perspective - this will _not_ be a "win" for us.

Perhaps Adobe has forgotten that we, the customers, also must make
business decisions.

I say that we "vote" with our Deutsche Marks, dollars, francs, and
pounds and let Adobe see how much we want - let alone need - the
Creative Cloud.

"That's how capitalism is supposed to work."

Dave Stamm

Information Engineer

From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Steve Johnson
Sent: 2013-05-12-Sunday 09:52
To: Alan T Litchfield
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com Forum
Subject: Re: OT: Corporate madness - Adobe software to be subscription
only

Adobe introduces subscription-based licensing. So many of its users find
it an outstanding value that over time, most of them license software by
subscription. Adobe is rewarded for being innovative and Adobe serves
its customers better. Everybody wins.

Adobe ends its relationship with resellers over time so that,
eventually, all users license software directly from Adobe .. either
subscription or download or disks (at an extra cost).

This is also a success story for Adobe; it's rewarded because it's
providing a better service for its customers and at the same time, it's
doing better for its shareholders. That's how capitalism is supposed to
work.

Choice is the entire issue. Everyone who made the case for subscription
has a great point. It's not what I choose but I have no reason to tell
you subscription is bad for *you*.

Choice ... it's what humans do all the time. Adobe has removed the
choice from some percentage of its users and there's no reason for it.
Maybe Adobe has gotten to the point where it no longer believes
customers make Adobe successful. Maybe they think they're so big they
don't have to think about customers anymore; we, Adobe, make YOU
successful.

I don't know; fact is, they're doing their customers a disservice by
limiting our choice for how we license software from them. Subscriptions
are great, just give me back what I want and I'm perfectly content.

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 11:42 PM, Alan T Litchfield
<alan at alphabyte.co.nz> wrote:

Funny how people put words between the lines...

On 12/05/13 12:08 PM, Steve Johnson wrote:

That's some interesting points and some of them are probably partially
true. What you're saying basically is that Adobe blames its customers
for its relative low profit margins and share price. If only we were
more rational and obedient, Adobe would be better off.

I never said Adobe "blames" anyone for anything. I am saying that Adobe
has shareholders and share values are important. Customers are important
too, but they are important because they improve share value (more
customers, better share values). However, customers are only valuable
when they are encouraged to part with their money, so to have customers
pay more frequently is better than when they don't.

The problem with cusomters is that they cost money to do business with.
The cost of customer management has a negative effect on share value.
So, cut the cost of doing business and improve share value. The
subscription model Adobe are rolling out does just that.

Obedience has nothing to do with it. Don't make it a human factor.
Humanity has nothing to do with this. This is economics.

You're side of the mark about resellers. Adobe locks down pricing and
availability of its software; you can't buy old versions of anything
from anybody ever and you can't get more than a few dollars of discount
from anybody. Having other people sell for you is generally a good
thing.

Ignoring the bit about buying old versions, as a former reseller, I can
quite confidently tell you that you are wrong.

Resellers are expensive to support and no longer bring real value to the
product. With the advance of Internet and peer support of products,
Adobe had long since removed the reseller from the channel. The
subscription model merely removes the last part of the retail chain.
Sure, there remain some resellers but they are concerned with large
customers who need specific licensing requirements. These are the ones
that for Adobe to do itself, are uneconomic.

> But again, in the Adobe way of looking at things, what's good for
> the customer is bad because customers always do the wrong thing.

Sorry, makes no sense. Customers (those that pay for stuff) always do
the right thing when they are relieved of their money.

Adobe is making this change in anticipation of other changes yet to be
announced.

Meh. It's just another way to do business. I have worked out that the
subscription model will cost me about twice much to keep getting access
to what I have now. It will disadvantage me in the future because I have
to continue to pay for something I do not have to continue to pay for
now.

If you love the subscription model you'll love whatever else
they have in mind for you. It's a good time to be an apologist.

If I too were a fanboy, then maybe I too would be all smoochy about it.
I have been in this business for too many years. I do not like it that
this company (or any other) decide that I have not been paying enough
for what I have been using and make it so that I pay more. I do not like
it that I have to have the corporation in my head every month come
subscription time.

On the other hand, it is good time to be a user of LaTeX, et al.

I am keen to see what Jeremy has to offer.

Alan

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Alan T Litchfield <alan at alphabyte.co.nz
<mailto:alan at alphabyte.co.nz>> wrote:

    On 12/05/2013, at 6:36 AM, Steve Johnson wrote:

        Almost everyone keeps ignoring the question of CHOICE. There's
        no doubt you can make a case for subscription but you can also
        make a case for getting the disks or downloading the software.

        Of what benefit to Adobe is depriving us to choose what we want?
        Why is mailing me disks for additional cost or providing a
        download bad for Adobe? Clearly it isn't. There is something
        else going on.

        Certainly Adobe will jack up the price of subscription. They
        might have other things in mind also but the point is, why make
        everyone adopt a model that doesn't benefit everyone? What's in
        it for Adobe? That's what I'd like to know.

    Decreased cost for license management, increased cash flow through
    subscriptions, constant income stream as opposed to periodic peaks
    related to new product releases, increased profit margins, better
    share value, regional price control and management (we typically pay
    3x the US cost for the same software), better release management (no
    more pesky resellers and middlemen), better profits from cutting out
    middlemen and resellers, therefore even better share value, more
    accurate profit forecasts at shorter time intervals, therefore even
    better share value,...

    Alan

    --
    AlphaByte
    PO Box 1941, Auckland, 1140
    New Zealand
    http://www.alphabyte.co.nz

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