Originally Posted by facialfreak

What people are not picking up on here, is it's called CLOUD COMPUTING ... You do not install photoshop on your system, nor do you get any CDs with the Photoshop software on them ...

Your $45 a month entails you to a login to the cloud ... that's it!
You will need an active broadband connection at all times while using the software - there is not working offline.

For what it is, yes $49 per month (or even $35 monthly on the annual plan) is very dear ...

Eventually all applications will move to the cloud ... The writing is already on the wall, and there are many advantages for software producers/providers. It all but eliminates software piracy (a booming multi BILLION dollar business), and it means that anybody can use applications on any architecture - be it a netbook, iPad, tablet, or smartphone - regardless of how much RAM or what speed processor you have ... the actual application runs on clusters in the cloud.

The problem with charging exorbitant fees for access to cloud applications, is that these fees add up. You need to pay $60 a month for your broadband connection, $49 for access to Photoshop, another $49 for Flash, another $29 for access to Dreamweaver, maybe $10-20 a month for your online storage locker...

If you want to be a web designer, its going to cost you $200 a month before you even turn your computer on!!

On a positive note, as physical software is weaned out, it will level the playing fields by getting rid of all the kids in mommy's basement with a cracked photoshop torrent, but I still think Adobe is missing the mark here. The profits in the recurring payment business model, is not in how much you charge per month, but how many monthly subscriptions you can sell ...

Adobe would stand to make far better money by bringing a monthly Photoshop subscription down to $9.99 per month, and turning all of the pirated version users into recurring LEGAL clients!!