Yesterday Adobe released pricing information for the upcoming Creative Suite 6. While Adobe have experimented with subscriptions in a limited fashion, CS6 will see the introduction of across the board subscription pricing. In America, a 12 month subscription translates to US$50 per month, somehow those boffins in the Adobe finance department have that translating to A$62.99pm.
While 16.99 doesn’t sound much on a per month individual basis, when multiplied throughout the year, Australians will pay A$203.88 more per seat, per year. It’s disappointing to companies continually hit Australians with higher prices for exactly the same digital product. This isn’t as a result of extra shipping or import taxes, this appears to be that old chestnut of pricing at ‘what the market will bear’.
Don’t get me wrong the addition of subscription pricing dramatically lowers the barrier to entry. Adobe’s Creative Suite is a professional level suite of products and have historically had a price to match, many thousands of dollars. With the new pricing models, those individuals who have resorted getting CS from the torrents, really have no excuse not to go legit.
The flexibility of month-to-month pricing also allows design and production shops to scale up around peak times, just as they would with casual employees or contractors. Once the project ends, they can revert to a base level of licences.
Updated
Adobe is offering a special deal for existing CS users (from CS3 and up). The discount is A25pm which means that $62.99 becomes A37.99/pm for the first year. Check out more details on the upgrade offer for Creative Cloud.
More info @ http://www.adobe.com/au/
