I recently received an art file from from a new client that prompted the age old dilemma of whether or not to update my Adobe Creative Suite software. I had managed to avoid the confrontation with Adobe up to this point because frankly the marketing and feature points for the price did not really impress me. Now don't get me wrong, I love to update my software. I have a habit of clicking on the Check for Updates in the iTunes app store at least several times a day and I follow several web sites such as Appleinsider and CNET for technology news and rumors.
The one new feature for Creative Suite 5.5 that caused me to reevaluate my thoughts about this round of updates was subscriptions. I had read several creative-type blogs that discussed the pros and cons of subscriptions last month during the initial marketing buzz of the launch of CS 5.5 and then the whole thing just slowly faded into the background... until this week.
As part of the PR coverage, Macworld.com had two columnists, Pamela Pfiffner and David Blatner, each take an opposing view on the subscription model and I took a few moments to review their arguments. Here are the links to Pamela's and David's columns. There might be more in-depth discussions on the issue somewhere else but frankly, neither of these arguments, pro subscription or pro ownership, convinced me of anything. The pro-ownership argument was mostly based in the fear of not having an Internet connection or the possibility of Adobe going the way of HP. Not exactly the most positive atributes to bring to your argument. The pro-subscription position quoted dollars and cents of a full retail purchase price against an annual subscription price. It does not factor the costs of a subscription against a upgrade price or does it explicitly mention you keep paying the subscription in year two and three.
So what is my decision?
I have this file in front of me and my client is waiting. Adobe CS is an essential tool for providing my services to my clients and I have already paid my entry fee to ride the CS train back in version one. I have faithfully updated each and every version until this one. Unless Adobe raises the pricing structure for updates, I prefer to pay once to Adobe, download my 5 GBs and go about the work of providing solutions to my clients. Thanks Adobe for the choice.