Progress under CC rent model

[brandon]

Hi, Most will recall that when PS left perpetual licensing to a rent to use model (apparently because coding both was a major headache, and BTW the rent version was the new guy on the block ie the cause of that inconvenience to ADOBE not a bystander let alone a solution to that problem) it was suggested that a real benefit to users was that incremental feature upgrades (beyond dot camera raw updates for new lenses and cameras) could be introduced as developed, bringing them to the end user earlier, rather than them banked-up awaiting new versions of PS. Does recent history bear that out to be the case? ( i keep up with current LR, CO, but left PS at CS5 so really dont know)

[howardm]

it was never about 'too difficult'.  It's about financial stabilization of Adobe income.  Have you bothered to check their stock price over the last 2 years (relative to before).  a good time to have been a shareholder.

[Jack Hogan]

It's about financial stabilization of Adobe income.  Have you bothered to check their stock price over the last 2 years (relative to before).  a good time to have been a shareholder.

Over the last year it hasn't done better than the S&P500.  And at 147 times earnings good luck in the long term if they do not come up with something substantially better for their customers in the near term.  You can only milk them for so long before they realize that they are being fleeced.  Darn customers.  Can't they just roll-over and pay up?

To the OP: Not even close, at least as far as I am concerned.

[Les Sparks]

I've had the same question, What new features have been added? I can't think of any that I use. But others may have found things that they use and that maybe I should check out. So what are they?
Would be nice to address the OP's question and not rehash all the old rent model stuff.

[Rory]

Good question - got me to wondering too.  Doesn't feel like much, but here is Adobe's summary.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I've had the same question, What new features have been added? I can't think of any that I use. But others may have found things that they use and that maybe I should check out. So what are they?
Would be nice to address the OP's question and not rehash all the old rent model stuff.

Adobe have said that they would spend a bit more time on polishing the underlying functionality rather than come with new headline features. That's one of the reasons they went to a subscription model, because Photoshop is a mature product, and one can maybe only add a few really innovative things. New things like 3D printing are just adding bloat, there are already more dedicated applications for that.

Also, the Creative Cloud is more than just Photoshop, I'm sure lots of progress can still be made with the other (Video and website content development oriented) applications.

The really new features in Photoshop CC are not enough for me to upgrade from CS6, and I already had a perpetual license for Lightroom 5 (a discounted upgrade offer). I've never spent less on upgrading my Adobe programs since the CC was introduced. Lightroom 6 is supposed to become more expensive (probably to make the CC bundle look more attractive in comparison), but I've not yet read about any must have new functionality, so I may skip that one too.

Cheers,
Bart

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Bart, I think you have touched on why this upgrade licensing model for Adobe and their continual license fee payers, is both a very good thing and a not so good thing. It is good because feature tweaks are being continuously added and polished under the hood as it were, but not so good as hardly anyone notices the differences. So the product will appear static to your average user and their continual payments being solely for licensing usage, rather than the old but easily identifiable point release upgrades, even though that may not be the case.

Dave

[Some Guy]

Over the last year it hasn't done better than the S&P500.  And at 147 times earnings good luck in the long term if they do not come up with something substantially better for their customers in the near term.  You can only milk them for so long before they realize that they are being fleeced.  Darn customers.  Can't they just roll-over and pay up?

To the OP: Not even close, at least as far as I am concerned.

With camera sales waning, I can see a shift in the cell phone camera crowd, or next generation of camera users, and this might be Adobe's last Hoorah since the apps makers are crushing Adobe in cell camera apps - and for a lot less too or even free.  Plus, PS has been getting a bad rap in the press about over-photoshopping people that places unreal expectations on youngsters and beauty.

Don't see The Cloud hanging around if these files become so large out of megapixel cameras if that it takes a day to upload them either.  Internet (DSL) may get replaced by Cellnet 6G.  Recall that Kodak had their photo cloud back in the 1990's and look where that went.  That tech may change and even the internet guy made the comment about, "If you want it to last, you'd better print it. (i.e. Storage tech may change.)."  Heck, I got programming and AutoCad stuff on 5 1/14" floppy disks I can't even read or use anymore as hardware doesn't exist and OS has changed to make it hard to import even if I could.

SG

[fdisilvestro]

While there have not been big changes in features, the improvements in the existing ones are significant. The increased performance in some tools such as liquify is evident and with the latest version, at least in my experience, Photomerge works very well. In ACR the brush for the radial and gradient filters is also a welcome addition.

In my opinion, PS + LR + 20GB cloud storage + web site for less than the price of two coffees a month is a bargain.

In relation to the cloud, I'm a firm believer it will become the norm. We are still at the early stages, so it is understandable that many people have reservations about it, but it is progressing at a fast pace. Just to mention a few things already available in the corporate world (still too expensive for personal use) are connections up to 10 Gbps and failover solutions between different cloud implementations, (e.g. having your cloud infrastructure in Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, in case one fails the other takes over)

[rdonson]

It's been a decent deal for me to have CC but its not been an earth shattering advantage.  Photographers seem to have been a last minute thought for Adobe that was addressed once Scott Kelby stood up for photographers.  At least now CC is no more expensive for photographers than the upgrade cycles for PS and LR.

My real concern is that Adobe seems less than concerned that they're not best in class in RAW conversion.  That's something near and dear to many photographers.

[jrp]

I think that their income has not recovered to pre-sub levels, but their share price has still tracked the index.

The main thing that they seem to have been working on, apart from 3D, is the cloud infrastructure. We'll see how things develop as Apple roll out their "free" version -- Photos -- next month, based on paying for storage, rather than functionality. Google has plus, which is "free" for smaller pictures, and is also cloud based, being funded by access to your eyeballs (advertising).

So far, Lightroom mobile is less straightforward to use than either of the latter offerings (lots of syncing and collecting) but not that much more capable than they are.

[dwswager]

it was never about 'too difficult'.  It's about financial stabilization of Adobe income.  Have you bothered to check their stock price over the last 2 years (relative to before).  a good time to have been a shareholder.

Why I own stock and still use Photoshop CS6!  Upgrades were like $149 and I skipped 2 or 3 over the years.  Much cheaper on the old model than the new, at least for long time users.  If you are new and had to figure in the $795 startup cost, the picture changes a little.

The problem for Adobe with respect to photoshop is that the target audience is just too small. Phone camera users not only aren't going to pay $10 a month, they don't need the functionality.  In addition, Adobe is going through Microsoft syndrome.  This is how it works; why don't you people understand!  I downloaded Lightroom for my Android phone and it doesn't recognize the 64GB SD card.  Makes it pretty much useless!  They need to learn that just because an iPhone can't do it, doesn't mean it shouldn't.  Steve Jobs died already!  Let him RIP!