Adobe announces new subscription plan for photography enthusiasts

PanARMENIAN.Net - Adobe Systems announced a promised new subscription plan for photography enthusiasts, a $10-per-month bundle of Lightroom and Photoshop that's designed to cater to people dissatisfied with Adobe's previous Creative Cloud options, according to CNET.

The deal is a good price, CNET says, as Photoshop alone costs $10 per month for existing Creative Suite customers, but only for a limited time, after which it jumps to $20 per month. The new subscription offer includes that, plus Lightroom, 20GB of cloud storage space, and access to Adobe's Behance network. The new photo bundle is $10 a month with no expiration date.

But there are three catches: first, it's a subscription, and there are plenty of people who don't like subscriptions. Second, you have to sign up by December 31, 2013. Third, you have to have bought Photoshop CS3 or later, CNET says.

"Since introducing Photoshop CC, we've listened to feedback from a spectrum of our customers, from advanced professionals to casual enthusiasts. One common request was a solution specifically tailored for photographers. We listened, and at Photoshop World we're announcing a special offer for our loyal Photoshop customers," said Winston Hendrickson, Adobe's vice president of engineering for Adobe's digital imaging products, in a blog post Wednesday, Sept 4.

The switch to the $50-per-month Creative Cloud subscription coincided with the end of the perpetual-license era for the bulk of Adobe's software, meaning that people couldn't buy a license to software that would last forever but instead had to pay monthly. Lightroom, geared for photography pros and enthusiasts, is one of the exceptions still available via perpetual licensing, but it's often used in conjunction with Photoshop, which isn't.

It was one factor that contributed to Adobe customer dissatisfaction and, consequently, eagerly pouncing competitors.

Adobe remains committed to the subscription era, but is tweaking its options to try to address some of the concerns.

The Photoshop-Lightroom bundled suite will be available when Adobe releases Lightroom 5.2, which currently is in testing.