In the past few days, Twitter and blogs have been on fire with the news that Adobe is dropping further Flash development for mobile device browsers. Interesting, but for me, the more important development to come out of Adobe lately is pricing for its Creative Cloud.
If you haven’t heard of the Creative Cloud before, don’t worry; it’s a brand-new bundle containing the following boatload of online software and services:
Touch apps for tablets. For starters, that will include Carousel, Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, Photoshop Touch, and Proto. I say “for starters” because I have a hunch more touch apps will be coming from Adobe.
Digital Publishing Suite. There are several versions of DPS, and which one will be part of the Creative Cloud isn’t clear yet.
Business Catalyst. This service is targeted at businesses wanting to build websites with e-commerce, Web analytics, and customer data management.
Webfonts. There will be oodles of webfonts from Typekit, which Adobe acquired last month.
Community. As-yet unspecified “collaboration features” that let you show your ideas to other Creative Cloudies and discuss those ideas.
18 desktop applications. Creative Cloud will include access to every program in the Creative Suite Master Collection:
• Acrobat X Pro
• After Effects
• Audition
• Bridge
• Contribute
• Device Central
• Dreamweaver
• Encore
• Fireworks
• Flash Builder Premium Edition
• Flash Catalyst
• Flash Professional
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Media Encoder
• OnLocation
• Photoshop Extended
• Premiere Pro
Let’s Talk Numbers
Clearly, the Creative Cloud has a lot to offer. But is it a good value? That depends on you.
Adobe will charge individuals $50/month and workgroups $69.99/month to access everything in the Creative Cloud, including the entire Creative Suite Master Collection. People who need to stay current on a broad range of Adobe technology should find this price appealing. For others, it may be a waste of money.
Happily, Adobe won’t force you into the subscription model. Creative Cloud will roll out sometime in the first six months of 2012, but you’ll still be able to buy your software and services the old-fashioned way.
When the Creative Cloud subscription service does become available, CreativePro.com will publish an in-depth article to help you decide if it’s right for you. In the meantime, I ran some preliminary numbers to find out how much this stuff would cost if you got it all separately. Note that it’s a little tricky to figure out, since you’d buy some things outright, like the tablet apps, and some things are available only by monthly subscription, such as Business Catalyst and webfonts. Further complicating the fact is that some (DPS, for example) are available in multiple tiers. And of course, few people will use every single app in the Master Suite.
Caveats aside, here’s how the numbers came out for me, using the lowest-possible prices I could find:
One-time purchase
$9.99: Carousel
$9.99: Collage
$9.99: Debut
$5.99: Ideas
$9.99: Kuler
$9.99: Photoshop Touch
$9.99: Proto
$395: Digital Publishing Suite
=
$460.93 one-time costs
Monthly subscriptions
$19: Business Catalyst
$2: Webfonts
$129: Creative Suite Master Collection
=
$150 monthly costs
Which way do you think you’ll go? Creative Cloud mega-subscription, or a la carte purchases? Click the Comments button to share your thoughts.
This article was last modified on December 14, 2022
This article was first published on November 11, 2011
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