Adobe Creative Cloud Takes Flight

Videomaker by

Adobe launches a new era with its Creative Cloud family of software and services for the creative community. The traditional software of the former Creative Suite is now more streamlined and robust than ever before. New programs and coinciding services take advantage of today’s networking bandwidth to provide a platform that will generate new means of content creation and delivery.

On June 17, 2013, Adobe released the latest upgrade to its bundle of creative software in the form of Adobe Creative Cloud. This is a meteoric shift from Adobe’s former packages under the Adobe Creative Suite moniker. The Creative Cloud contains all the familiar applications, upgraded to meet new technical and creative demands, it also offers everything else. Creative Cloud offers applications and services that weren't offered in the Creative Suite packages. Creative Cloud is more than a software service, it is a platform built to encourage innovation and collaboration. An apparent trend throughout the Creative Cloud is the increased integration of applications through online services. This may create some new and more efficient workflows. For more on the specific application upgrades as they pertain to the video professional and enthusiast, check out the article, "Adobe Creative Cloud" in this issue.

The video community responded to the Creative Cloud shift with mixed emotions. There were many voices of outrage and disappointment. The software, services, and their capabilities aren’t the point of contention. It’s the shift to a software subscription from the conventional purchase options that has users in an uproar. Some of the outrage can be tempered with an objective view of the subscription services, as well as the pricing, but a consistent point of dissent is based on the principle of subscribing or “renting” the software.

Purchasing Options Revisited

The launch of Adobe Creative Cloud, as the sole means of delivery for Adobe's latest creative software, generated a great deal of debate because of one major change, how the software is purchased and distributed. Prior to Creative Cloud, Creative Suites were released in various packages based on a perpetual software license. The licensee would purchase the software and the purchase would allow the user to use that edition of the software so long as they didn’t transfer that license to another party. It was buy once and use it indefinitely. When upgrades were released, the license holder had the option to purchase a software upgrade or continue on with their current version of the software. Users who wanted to remain current with their software would purchase the upgrade and users who felt they possessed what they needed were able to skip the upgrades without having to make further purchases. read more...