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  • Adobe's Special Deal On Photoshop CC Membership
Technology Articles > Software > Graphic Apps > Adobe's Special Deal On Photoshop CC Membership

Remember when Adobe announced Photoshop CC back in June, part of their Creative Cloud idea? They touted it as the future of Adobe products, making it necessary to pay a monthly fee of $49.99 rather than a one-time fee each time it is upgraded? Remember how mad people were? Well, there's some news on that front today. Adobe, it seems, has heard the angry cries.

On Tuesday, Adobe posted a special incentive on its blog: $9.99 each month for those who've owned Photoshop licenses all the way from CS3-CS6. Your ten bucks per month buys your way into not only Photoshop CC, but Creative Cloud Learn, Behance ProSite, Lightroom 5, software updates, and 20GB of cloud storage.

The Photoshop Photography Program

They're calling it the Photoshop Photography Program, meant to reward loyal Photoshop CS users, and entice them to give the Creative Cloud a chance. The offer was introduced to attendees of the Photoshop World conference in early September in Las Vegas prior to hitting the Internet via Adobe's blog.

The real question is will these users be on board with paying a monthly fee to use the cloud services? When Creative Cloud was initially launched, there was much hesitation on the part of photographers to give it a try. Adobe seems to hope users will simply fall in love with it during the promotional period, which only lasts until December 31, 2013, at which point they won't be able to live without it and will remain loyal subscribers even at the $49.99 monthly price point.

Does Adobe 'Get It?'

Why such a steep price cut? 40 dollars is a lot to lose. Basically, the company appears to realize people won't pay such a high price for a subscription to use software that they love that used to cost a simple, one-time fee whenever there was an update.

They know they've disenchanted many users with their decision to cease future releases of updates to popular software packages, software people have been using for decades. Even if you don't want the whole shebang, and you just want to subscribe to Photoshop exclusively, it will cost you $19.99 per month (but you'll have to sign a 1-year contract, which if you break will cost you half of the remaining monthly charges).

Want to avoid the contract? Sure, but that's going to be $29.99 each month. Over time, that old $999 price tag on Photoshop CS6 Extended doesn't seem so pricey, does it?

The Verdict

While most professionals won't have a problem with the cost of the software being spread out over time, and will love how soon updates are available to them, others will still long for the physical software. It's the choice that matters to some users.

Rather than force everyone to head to the cloud, offer the software for those who don't need the convenience of the cloud and prefer purchasing the software. Since this isn't likely, users can only hope for the introduction of many offers such as this one in the future.

How do you feel about Adobe's Creative Cloud?