Is Adobe Doing Their Competitors A Favor?

Adobe recently announced that for the Mac world, the company that made Adobe a viable company and a company the majority of graphics professionals depend on, there will be no more upgrades for Macs. If we want to continue to use Adobe products it will cost us $20 a month for any one of their programs or $50 a month for their Suite in a new CC or Cloud based product. You will have to use the program online, on the web. No more versions that reside on your computer.

Adobe: Going, GOing, GONE?

I have said for several years now, that Adobe has become greedier, less responsive and its programs greater memory hogs (Steve Jobs hated Flash, vowed to destroy it and refused to allow it to run on the iPhone and iPad for that very reason) and humbly suggested that Apple buy the company. This is something their Petty Cash account could purchase in a heartbeat and create user friendly graphics programs the envy of any company in the world. AND, put Adobe out of its current misery.

Reading the announcement on TCUW, an Apple geek web site, they also noted that this move is going to open the market for those professionals who want to own their own programs and not have to RELY on the web, something that is still problematic for the majority of the world. I am what, 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles and let me tell you, I may suffer more power outages than Grandma in rural Iowa. In fact, Southern California Edison has their HQ a few miles away in the town I live in and we still get more than our share of outages. In fact one happened this morning! If everyone in my neighborhood fires up the TV, laptops, iPads and lord knows what else, my Internet service slows to a crawl or has no service at all.

TCUW also noted Adobe has taken this tact because of all the ripping off of their programs. I had to laugh. They think going to the web will reduce this? Really? When I think of how many attempts it takes to enter their serial numbers to get the program to work, I shutter even now at the thought. Probably just about any 12 year old will crack that "cloud" code and make copies even easier to steal. I am sure its already available on the streets of Shanghai for $5 a disk, a place Apple products are not only made but sold to an ever increasing consumer base.

I don't know about you, but there is still something in me that wants that CD or DVD with the program in my hot little hand. I want to see, in print, the Serial number and if and when I call for help, I don't want to depend on someone in a third world country to dependably find that number for me. If it gets corrupted, I want to reinstall it myself.

That said, I should also say that I love Adobe PhotoShop. I am self taught and have done some wonderful things with that program. I am constantly amazed that it seems to think like I do and just about everything I throw at it, it comes back happy as a lark. In fact, I am stuck at 5.1 because Adobe and I seemed to have a battle over the upgrade to CS 6.0. I am sure it does a few more things. However, and I've also said this all along, if I never upgraded again, I don't think I or anyone else for that matter, would ever learn all the things it can do because the possibilities are endless.

You have to applaud Adobe, in their shortsightedness, they have opened the door even more to the competition. That might be wonderful! Adobe should beware of what they want, it can have unintended consequences!

P. S. If I was Quark, I would jump on this opportunity like white on rice. Regain their past glory!