Would You Rent Photoshop for $49 a Month?

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I am a huge fan of Photoshop but there is no way I would pay fifty bucks a month to use it. Would you? Adobe seems to think so. :rolleyes:

Want to use Photoshop in a project after your demo has expired? Instead of shelling out $650 for a license, Adobe will now allow you to rent the application on an as-needed basis for $49 per month.
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well you won't need to continue paying for it forever for $50 a month. Just as long as your project needs it for. Most people don't know how to pirate software, so these people will be perfectly content with renting Photoshop for $50 and finish a project in a month and not need Photoshop again. Why shell out $650 for something that'll be outdated in a year?

You're essentially paying $50 per version instead of $650 per version.

On the other hand, if Adobe would bring their software price in line with every other software in the world, perhaps they wouldn't need to worry about piracy so much. Office 2010 is just as important as Photoshop and doesn't cost $650.
 
Yes please give me another monthly bill, I am always looking for another one of those.
 
Can't help but wonder if this will become normal in the future. This kind of pricing scheme.
 
I think there's a huge market for it. Instead of paying a bunch of money for a piece of software that will wind up outdated, you can pay to use the most recent version on a month to month basis. Also, keep in mind, Photoshop is priced as a production tool geared towards businesses that make money using it. This justifies the price to some extent. Piracy is less of an option for businesses due to the legal liability that arisies from a business using pirated software to make money. The potential damages are much greater.
 
one swell foop said:
I think there's a huge market for it. Instead of paying a bunch of money for a piece of software that will wind up outdated, you can pay to use the most recent version on a month to month basis. Also, keep in mind, Photoshop is priced as a production tool geared towards businesses that make money using it. This justifies the price to some extent. Piracy is less of an option for businesses due to the legal liability that arisies from a business using pirated software to make money. The potential damages are much greater.
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Yeah I get that the software is expensive because of its intended market. I would love some sort of "home & student" version like MS does with office, as I wouldn't mind having a version of photoshop to mess around on and learn for fun, but that isn't worth $650 or $50 a month to me.
 
Azhar said:
On the other hand, if Adobe would bring their software price in line with every other software in the world, perhaps they wouldn't need to worry about piracy so much. Office 2010 is just as important as Photoshop and doesn't cost $650.
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I have no idea what type of work you do, but a $650 license for an application that gets used daily is crazy cheap where I work...
 
If you REALLY need PS then you will buy it. The people "renting" the software are better off buying PS Elements for $80. The other people that just want to try PS are better off with PAINT.NET or GIMP.
 
FranklyShankly said:
Yeah I get that the software is expensive because of its intended market. I would love some sort of "home & student" version like MS does with office, as I wouldn't mind having a version of photoshop to mess around on and learn for fun, but that isn't worth $650 or $50 a month to me.
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There is. It's called Photoshop Elements which cost $79.99 or Photoshop Elements + Premier Elements which is $119.99
 
Wait, so are they paying me or I'm paying them?

When I was a kid, I envied people who knew how to use Photoshop. I wish I could do what they did, because it was awesome. I couldn't, cause Photoshop cost an arm and a leg. Still does.

If I were Adobe, I would be grateful that people use it at all. How else are people going to learn? Let the businesses pay.
 
ocellaris said:
I have no idea what type of work you do, but a $650 license for an application that gets used daily is crazy cheap where I work...
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Think outside of the business. For example, a couple wants to make their own wedding invites and rents Photoshop for a month to make it. A family came home from vacation and wants to crop all of their photos and it'll only take a couple days. There's many different non-business scenarios that could benefit this subscription plan.

Yes, there are other cheaper software out there, but Adobe has brand recognition going for them with Photoshop. People are going to consider Photoshop - even more so when it's affordable with a monthly use subscription.
 
For the couple times a year I need to use photoshop or premiere that would be great. As of now I just buy the whole master collection every couple years but I would gladly just pay per month when I need to use it.
 
I would, as long as you can pay for just one month. If I did regular work in PS, like I used to, I wouldn´t consider this. But for the occasional high intensity complex image manipulation, heck yeah!

Great idea from Adobe.
 
the $49 a month price is a one year contract...

to go month to month with no contract is $75 a month. not worth it IMO
 
Azhar said:
On the other hand, if Adobe would bring their software price in line with every other software in the world, perhaps they wouldn't need to worry about piracy so much. Office 2010 is just as important as Photoshop and doesn't cost $650.
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I never understood why the price is so high on Photoshop because they release a new version almost every year with few new features added. It's a $200 program at best.
 
This actually pretty neat for freelancers who may have a need for PS on every other project or so, but not enough to really need to shell out full price.
 
dark_reign said:
I never understood why the price is so high on Photoshop because they release a new version almost every year with few new features added. It's a $200 program at best.
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Yeah I know, it's $199 for the upgrade version, but some businesses don't like to pile up upgrades. What if you're prepping a new computer for an employee and you have the 20 floppy disk Photoshop 1.0 installs and you're always buying $199 upgrades every year? If I was that company's IT person I would shoot my brains out :-P

I'm sure I'm exaggerating though.
 
niconx said:
Yes please give me another monthly bill, I am always looking for another one of those.
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As opposed to paying a one time fee of $500-600? This is not a monthly by monthly bill. This is catering to those who have a short term project but do not want to shell out the money. Heck this would work great for those who are just starting out doing work with photoshop and their trial has ended. I wonder if they would pro-rate it if the renter decided that after 2 months, they just wanted to buy the software.
 
I'd rather use GIMP. In fact, it's running on my system right now with 12 images loaded.
 
This is what Microsoft has been planning for years for Windows & Office. Microsoft Tax becomes Microsoft Rent.
 
Azhar said:
Think outside of the business. For example, a couple wants to make their own wedding invites and rents Photoshop for a month to make it. A family came home from vacation and wants to crop all of their photos and it'll only take a couple days. There's many different non-business scenarios that could benefit this subscription plan.

Yes, there are other cheaper software out there, but Adobe has brand recognition going for them with Photoshop. People are going to consider Photoshop - even more so when it's affordable with a monthly use subscription.
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The issue I see is that photoshop isn't the easiest program to use. I just wonder how effective this will be because those who know how to use it are the ones that might already have access to it.
 
No contract, $50 a month is a good idea.

x 12 months = $600. Contact idea = fail.

Even $75 isn't that bad for a monthly fee, because you never have to worry about a new version or updating.
 
honestly its a good deal .. IF .. you werent locked for a year ;) (maybe 6 months min or 3, id get it) ,but there are a lot of students who can make use of this deal still, 650 for a license for a software of this caliber is normal IMO. want something for home use. that's what PS elements, gimp, and heck, if people really want to force that paint is enough for everyone then be it. but for businesses PS does it job. and alot of artists and designers know it.
 
Cerulean said:
Why rent Photoshop when you can just...
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Well that's the only real argument. I wouldn't think that alone would cause people here to bash the idea of renting vrs buying.

On contract it's 35 a month, month to month it's 50. $420 for a year's worth of Photoshop?
 
Major_A said:
If you REALLY need PS then you will buy it. [strike=]The people "renting" the software are better off buying PS Elements for $80. The other people that just want to try PS are[/s] Everyone else better off with PAINT.NET or GIMP.
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+1 if it's worded like that

Anyone who's not knee deep in multiple apps of CS5 (or earlier) on a day to day basis shouldn't even bother with any version of Ps because it's not worth it. I never understood the whole fascination people have with Elements. Elements is a non-free version of Picasa; that's all it does. Red eye, minimal editing/cropping. Hell you can do that on Photobucket nowadays.
 
Taco said:
Hey fucker, that buzzword is making me a lot of money :D.
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Good! Just don't sell that shit to me...I am anxiously awaiting the fall of my IT Coordinator as he wants again bets all on Citrix and XEN works because he doesn't understand network management or the way people use their computers...gonna be fun watching this clown destroy everything I built as he drools on his tie...again! :cool:
 
SixFootDuo said:
Can't help but wonder if this will become normal in the future. This kind of pricing scheme.
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Buckle up, this is where the major software guys want to head. It's all about generating a continouous revenue stream.

Take Micro$oft for example. We had Win95, then when Win98 came out, it was a very worthwhile upgrade. Real benefits. Lots of people bought it, then the next OS, then the next OS, etc. Same with the Office suite.

Then, a funny thing happened. Windows XP and Office 2003 came along. Very capable, very stable, very complete. For most folks, there became no real need to upgrade either one. Future revenue from upgrades suddenly becomes a very large question mark, or at least, hugely reduced from the previous situation. I'm sure Adobe is in the same boat. Photoshop has gotten so good, that it's "good enough" for most folks. The need to continuously upgrade is quickly becoming a moot point.

I'll bet we can expect to see more software with a monthly subscription fee, cloud based application suites with recurring subscription fees, etc. This will only increase in the future. Updates may not be free going forward, either.

It's all about the Benjamins, gentlemen....
 
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