Adobe launches Creative Cloud with monthly subscriptions

Everyone loves to use Photoshop and other creative tools from Adobe. But not everyone wants to pay for it. Adobe Systems Incorporated is looking to change this with the launch of its Creative Cloud, a subscription-based model, in India.

Price-wise, it will be about 50 per cent cheaper to use the cloud service. Adobe hopes this will help tackle piracy as well as bring in new customers.

"Creative Cloud is like a club membership but it gives you much more than the Creative Suite 6 Master Collection," says Umang Bedi, Managing Director (South Asia).

While the regular pricing for Creative Cloud is Rs 4,040 per month, or Rs 48,480 per annum, Adobe has announced a promotional pricing of Rs 2,885 per month, or Rs 34,620 per annum, till the end of April.

In contrast, the CS6 Master Suite costs Rs 1,76,000, plus a 20 per cent charge per annum for support.

Along with the CS6 components, Bedi said, the new package will also give buyers access to Photoshop Lightroom, Muse, Edge and integration with Touch apps. They will also be able to use Digital Publishing Suite, Business Catalyst and Typekit.

In addition, subscribers will be able to access cloud-based sync, storage and sharing services. These customers will receive upgrades and new products at no extra cost.

"We are ushering in the single biggest transformation for the company in the past 30 years… Our business model is changing from a once in 12 months or 18 months upgrade to real time online upgrades," explains Bedi.

Though based on the cloud, Creative Cloud users won't need to be connected all the time to access the software. In fact, after the initial download they will need to go online just once in 30 days to upgrade and subscribe.

Bedi says this is crucial for Indian users, who don't have quality broadband access all the time. The software will be saved locally and will use the resources of the customer's hardware.

The company has been targeting one million-odd small and medium businesses in India with discounts and hopes this new model will prompt a lot more of them to convert to legitimate software. In other markets, where the model has already been introduced over the past few months, up to 40 per cent of the buyers have been new customers.

For individual customers and prosumers, the company will soon have another package that will let them subscribe ala carte to components in CS6 and the Creative Cloud.