Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: yaredna on May 09, 2013, 11:12:38 am
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Myth #1 - you own your purchased CS6. Fact is, you own the right to use it, based on its EULA. That's all. If you upgrade your computer, and you need to active the CS6 on a new computer, you still need Adobe to approve it
Myth #2 - PROs can afford higher rental fees. A definition of PRO is someone living off her/his trade. Fact is, many wedding photographers, portrait photographers are struggling to meet ends. They cannot afford doubling the cost of their software. They are PRO, no matter what other people think
Myth #3 - rental saves you on Tax. Fact is, talk to your tax consultant before you assume it does. In the most majority of the cases, it doesn't.
Myth #4 - rental will allow for more frequent updates. Fact is, it doesn't. It is the same. Engineers still have to validate the full package, documentation has to be written, training has to be developed, and software has to be downloaded. The market-driven economy requires incentives. In the rental mode, there is no incentive for Adobe to add features, since users are obliged to pay the rental fees if they want to keep using the base system
Myth #5 - maintaining two software bases is complicated and expensive (one for rental, one for purchase). Say this to any engineer, and they'll laugh to your face. Adding a small routine at the launch sequence, that checks the license (purchased or rented), then if rented, calls home once every 30 days to check if the rental is still active, is simple. No need to maintain TWO versions of the software
Myth #6 - For Adobe to survive, it has to be able to generate recurring revenues from existing products. Guess what, our economy over the past 200 years, survived in a different business model. GE sells scanners, and sells service contract, and the two lines are independently profitable. For Microsoft to have become one of the largest US corporation "selling" software, not renting it, seems to demonstrate that this is a viable system. However, it requires innovating to encourage users to upgrade, which sadly, Adobe concluded they don't have of this anymore.
Myth #7 - DNG is an open format. It is not. It is as open as .DOC, .XLS and other proprietary formats. Same for RAW. 50 or 100 years from now, there will be companies catering to collectors, developing Raw converters on Windows-34 or OSX-MLCX, for our grandkids to open our files and peer through our history.
Myth #8 - Basis for antitrust. Most legal advisors would beg to differ.
Myth #9 - Companies can segregate between PRO and Amateurs, and pick-and-chose their customer base. Good luck with this strategy. Thousands of graphic designers are students today, and will have to learn new tools. Guess what they'll do when they are in a position to make decisions in a corporation ? Rent Adobe suite ?
Myth #10 - Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe can sell videos/tutorials for Adobe suites profitably in the future. Right, their customer base are the PROs?
Myth #11 - Corporation can pretend "listening" to their customer, while fooling all of them, and no one will notice
Myth #12 - PRO are satisfied with this approach, because amateurs cannot compete with them in the future using the PRO adobe tools. PRO who are struggling to make ends meet are panicking. PROs who work in corporations cannot justify buying these same tools at home, and will have to learn a different home set. PROs are worried that they cannot hire students in the future already trained on these tools. PROs are worried that Adobe is shooting itself in the foot, and trying to double its business from PRO to overcome lost revenues from amateurs, is a suicidal move, therefore dooming the company.
I have yet to see someone without a conflict of interest defending a decision to limit choice. Lack of interest being: work for Adobe, owns Adobe stock, is married to an Adobe employee, is Canadian (Adobe is the national pride, just like BlackBerry/RIM and maple syrup).
Cheers --
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Sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding your sentence, but Adobe is NOT Canadian. Nor is maple syrup. They produce scads of the stuff in Vermont too. But a number of your myths are indeed myths.