Up to now, customers had perpetual access by paying a single fee for Adobe's Creative Suite. From next month, continuing access to the programs, either individually or as a whole, will demand a monthly fee. Standalone versions will still be available but will not be upgraded. The change was announced at Adobe's annual Max conference, at which it details the latest updates to its products.
Adobe spokesman Scott Morris said the move to a subscription system would free the company from its traditional 18 to 24-month upgrade cycle. From June, he said, improvements would be released as they became available.
At Max, Adobe said the standalone version of its Creative Suite, which bundles together 16 programs, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, Dreamweaver and Premiere, would be frozen at version 6. Bug fixes would be made available for this version but new features and enhancements would not. Currently, the standalone version of Creative Suite 6 costs about £1,800 from Adobe.
Those who want to keep up with upgrades and changes to Creative Suite would have to take out a subscription to Adobe's Creative Cloud - a web-based system through which customers can manage what they do with the different tools. In return, customers get access to the software as well as an online storage system and project management tools.
In the UK, access to all programs in the Creative Cloud costs £47 a month provided customers agree to pay for at least a year. If customers opt to pay month-to-month the cost is £70. Access to individual applications costs just under £18 a month if customers sign up for a year.
Source: BBC News
