Software also becomes a commodity in many cases. In 1995 I worked for an Imaging company and we were selling our image viewing software for over $1,000 per seat. When I left that company in 1999 that software with improvements was being given away for $50 per seat down to free. We we happy to get people to pay a modest support fee for each seat and the sales people even wanted to give that away.
Think about internet browsers. At one point in the 1990s these were the hottest and most profitable software products on the market. A few years later virtually nobody would even think about paying for a browser. It was free or included for free when you purchased a computer or operating system. This happens to most software products in their lifespan. Think about it....word processors, spreadsheets, presentation creation tools...most are free today. When i was in college in the early 1980s I remember on professor saying that the computer companies would give away computers to sell software in the future. He had the right idea but didn't realize that the software would largely be given away to sell the computers, tablets and phones...
rrkazman wrote:
As a software writer, and user, and armature photographer, I would say that the leasing of mature product such as Adobe wants to do with Photo Shop, is done and has been done because the company felt that the market might be willing to pay the cost for the product and service. I for one have an old copy of that software, I don't need a new one I don't need up-dates, just like my 2008 car it works fine for me. That is what Abode has taken away, I can not buy a new one because it is not available. I bought my photo shop 10 years ago, I bought my car the same year. I can buy a new car and drive it for 10 years, I can not buy a new Photo Shop. As for cost of maintenance and support, they have spread the Kool-aid and many have consumed. It takes a ton of work to develop new software, granted, but what Adobe has spent on up-dates and support on PS is miniscule in compared to the profits the generate with this flag ship product. I have a friend who is a graphics artist he has 3 seats of the latest PS with all of the whistles and bells. I work for him from time to time as he has observed they have you over the barrel he used to buy the annual service for his product, that was a tenth the cost of the lease fee. Adobe like others knows their audience, we vote with our dollars. The sales of PS are down year over year as many of the users are like me using one of the last standalone offerings and not up-grading. So it is up to companies to run there business as they see best, as consumers if we are unhappy look for a product that will work for you. However my knowledge of software tells me this is a cash cow for Adobe, because the software is ageless in its need, so they can do a little and reap alot.
As a software writer, and user, and armature photo... (
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