With no viable alternatives, big names flock to Adobe's cloudy wares amid global pandemic

Disruptions caused by COVID-19 continue to play into Adobe's hands with company execs last night toasting doubles all round as sales went up 14 per cent to $3.23bn year-on-year and pre-tax profit leaped 26.5 per cent to $1.06bn. Talking on an earnings conference call with Wall Street types, CEO Shantanu Narayen said: "Entire …

[chivo243]

Don't forget

Adobe just forced a large number of people to sign\cough up for CreativeCrapCloud, instead of riding on the already purchased earlier versions. I wish I was a heartless bastard like Adobe et al, I can think of lots of ways to squeeze the cash out of people, I just can't\won't pull the trigger.

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

Re: Don't forget

Yeah, when the jackbooted thugs from Adobe came round my house to move me off of CS6 I had to hide in the basement.

Adobe didn't *force* anyone to do squat. If you didn't have a license or buy a license during the months long period when they announced the pricing shift, yeah, you now need to buy a subscription or find a piece of 11 year old software on the shelf. But CS6 still updates just fine.

I was expecting the normal commentard discussion on how you can use the Gimp/Paint Shop Pro/Microsoft paint whatever to do "The same thing" and save literally tens of dollars. The Adobe CC suite is aimed at creative teams, and delivers excellent functionality. If you make a living with these tools - they are not egregiously priced compared to most software in that space, and either your company has a license or you can take the entire subscription off your taxes (in the US). IF you are a causal user, you can always do a 30 day trial and then never buy the license at all. But Adobe has not yet forced anyone to do anything against their will.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Don't forget

You can't buy legitimate versions of older standalone products anymore. The latest annual rental prices are similar to the one of charge.

And technical issues / bugs reported on Adobe's own forums remain unaddressed and unfixed for years. They are not customer focused, they are entirely revenue focused.

Would I recommend Adobe products? Never.

[jonathan keith]

Funny that...

... nearly all the people I know who were using Adobe's suite have bitten the bullet and moved to other products. Adobe's subscriptions are now more expensive than the cost of learning new tools, workflows and muscle memory. And I suggest that for the vast majority of users out there, the alternatives are now entirely good enough.

[czechitout]

Adobe seem to do a good job of operating under the radar. Everyone knows about Photoshop and Acrobat, but they clearly have a much broader offering. I can't recall any company I've worked for in the last five years even having an Adobe product as part of an RFP, let along actually buying one.

Does anyone have a breakdown of their largest products in a bit more detail than this article?

[AK565]

Fill & Sign?

[BGatez]

Does anyone have google?

[BGatez]

Affinity suite of pshop. illy and indesign equivalents under $50 each (available separately) and can work together just like adobe

[jtaylor]

Affinity Photo is great! I'm no power user, but it does everything I could want when I edit photos. The user interface has been easy for me too, though it's different from Photoshop. (For comparison, I never could wrap my head around GIMP. I'm sure it's great software and all, but my experience with Affinity is totally different and better in every way.)

Affinity offers a free trial. A perpetual license costs $50 US. It doesn't install any janky background services that phone home. They've been around for a while, too.

[Anonymous Coward]

A pox on the house of Adobe

No pun intended.

;)

[Anonymous Coward]

And editing PSB files once rental ends

is not an option.

[Kenpoguy]

No alternative? My company saved over 70% by switching out our Acrobat Estate to replace with Foxit PDF editing software. Completely different experience in service, care and interest in our usage pattern. We were experiencing lack of response when asking for renewal pricing from Adobe. They were keeping us waiting until we had no option but to renew on their crazy terms. If you want to be trapped then stay where you are. If you want to get a whole better deal then there are alternative products out there.