Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/65907
Trends & Technology n n n n Adobe sees a "cloudy" future for its product line, recently announcing a full-scale commitment to the cloud. that the GPU is going to be put to work in even more places. Adobe Group Product Manager Heidi Voltmer, who oversees Web and interactive products, contends that this is a major period of transformation for the company. It has tran- sitioned to one-year release cycles with CS5.5, and the biggest change was in publishing when Adobe released tools to enable digital publishing for tablets. is on the bleeding edge. Its customers are go- ing through tremendous change, as electronic devices show every sign of replacing printed books and magazines for many people. And the traditional press has been fast to see the ad- vantage: Now they can compete with TV and online advertising with the ability to create digital publications containing animated and interactive content. According to Voltmer, Adobe believes it has When it comes to publishing, Adobe really along. They also get the Creative Cloud, 20gb of storage on the Web that will be accessible to tablets, phones, and PCs. Content can be uploaded and shared with subscribers and non-subscribers alike, and users will be able to sync content with the cloud and their de- vices. What's more, they get access to the Creative Community area. Adobe sees this as a resource for users who can share inspiration through galleries, training, and support. The firm is in the process of revamping its site to better integrate Creative Cloud. Right now, Adobe's various resources for users are spread out throughout the company's site. There's great stuff there, but you have to really want to find it in order to locate it. At first, users will see the collaboration and the galleries. The training tools will come later, but still in the first half of 2012. to move faster: 18-month and even one-year product release cycles are just too slow to keep up with the pace of change —and it's not just concerning the publishing industry. The Web today is nothing like the Web 10 years ago, and it's nothing like we thought it would be 20 years ago. We might not be walking around in virtual-reality spaces, but static pages look like they could become a thing of the past. Voltmer says CS6 is going to get updates a lot more frequently. Among other things, it will be updated routinely to keep up with the fast- paced evolution of HTML5, a Web protocol designed to rebuild the Web from the bottom up—almost like building a car's engine while it is still running down the road. So, what do Adobe's customers get for $50 to $70 a month? A whole lot. For one, they get access to Adobe Creative Suite and other applications. Plus, Adobe is throwing in Type- kit, Lightroom, Edge, Muse, the touch Apps for Tablet, and other goodies that might come This subscription program will cost each user about $600 a year. So, yes, it's more than a regular upgrade of the boxed products if you're using one of the point offerings or the basic suites (Design Edition, Web Premium, or Production Premium). But it's about the same price as the Master Suite Collection up- grade, which is currently advertised as $545 (the boxed set costs $2600), and you get all the great additional stuff. With a subscription, users also will be able to split their license between the Mac and the PC. Currently, users can run the products on two ma- chines, but they have to buy either a Mac prod- uct or a PC product. If they quit the subscription program, they lose access to the programs. Volt- mer suggests that users might then decide to buy a point product or perpetual license if they work with certain products all the time. The scheme is perfect for companies that can extend licenses to contract workers or employees and then shift the license when the contract is done or the em- ployee leaves the company. The move to subscriptions and digital distri- bution makes sense, Voltmer says, because the industry is moving so fast and Adobe would like to be able to upgrade the products as the features are ready, rather than wait every 18 months or so to roll out a sweeping change. It's better for customers who have a chance to assimilate changes, and certainly it's better for Adobe, which sidesteps the boom and bust cycle, lowers the cost of printing and shipping boxed sets, reduces support because customers have an easier time learning new features, and encourages customers to try out new tools. Indeed, there was definite worry among customers when Adobe's strategy was first announced. There was a fear that customers would be forced into the subscription option, rather than buying and upgrading releases. Voltmer relays that some people worried that they would only be able to access Adobe's products in the cloud. As the details are being revealed, however, it seems clear that custom- ers are becoming more positive. Those who want to continue buying the products as a re- lease with a perpetual license can do so. Adobe is trying to move all its active customers up to CS6 and has enabled upgrade pricing for CS3 through the current 5.5 release. The Online Opportunity As I stated earlier, Adobe is also including its online tools, such as Business Catalyst and Adobe Typekit, into the deal. These SaaS (software as a service) tools are intriguing new products that are harbingers of new ways of working and interacting with clients. Business Catalyst is an online develop- ment tool that provides content management, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, an integrated CRM database, and reporting and analytic ca- pabilities. Adobe bought Business Catalyst in 2009 from Australian developers Bardia Hous- man and Adam Broadway. (We at Jon Peddie Research have played with the product under the guidance of Adobe and really liked it.) However, Business Catalyst is competing in the market against an army of creative Web developers that put together sites using modules from a variety of sources that can be very low cost or free. Adobe's business model on this is to make itself a partner to Web developers: Customers pay a monthly fee for their site and services, and Adobe pays Web developers a commission for the hosted sites. Adobe offers to handle billing itself or will bill Web developers, which will then bill their clients. Adobe Typekit, meanwhile, is similar to everything we're talking about here. It's also billed monthly and, in return, customers get April/May 2012 33