Mike Jones Digital Basin
cinematic media rinse cycle

Adobe by Subscription

The software industry is shoe-horned into a mould that it just doesn’t fit. Software is unlike any other 'product' and yet software developers have trundled along for decades selling software like they'd sell shoes. Pay your money get a box - software as tangible product.... Only there's a catch, printed manuals aside software ISNT a tangible product, its not something you can hold. It’s not a physical thing. Its not a commodity. The irony is that despite the fact that it’s sold like a commodity it doesn’t legally fit any of the ownership traits of a commodity. You don’t own the software when you buy it, you have  licence to USE it with permissions and restrictions. Give with one hand take with the other. Sold like a commodity but without any of the benefits of Ownership that belong to every other Commodity.

The fact that because you only own a licence to us the software you cant legally modify it, alter it, change it, apply it in different ways and contexts is the equivalent of buying a Toyota and wanting to paint it green and Toyota suing you if you do because it breaches the Licence you purchased.

The truth is that software is not a commodity and should never have been bought sold as if it was. A significant proportion of the worlds software developers are starting to see the light in this regard and hence we have the rise in open-source solutions or hybrid, service-based economic models. Software more readily fits the mould of being a Service tool rather than a Product Commodity and it seems that creative software giant Adobe have begun to see the light in this regard.

Adobe are now offering Creative Suite3 Design Premium (the bundle that includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver) as a Subscription service. No big upfront commodity product fee but rather a software service you subscribe to by way of annual or monthly fees.



It’s a very bold and forward thinking step form the Adobe monolith that is obviously serving as a test case to ultimately be rolled out across their product line. In considering the ramifications outside of economics I cant help but see big wins for users.

The first is that you’re only paying for what you need when you need it. Heading into post production for a 3-month period; subscribe to get Premiere, After Effects and Audition. Got a 6month gig that’s going to need Flash, subscribe only for that period, don’t pay for software you’re not using.

Second, you’re always up to date with the latest version, no more saving up the big outlay for a new version or being a version behind. Subscription would include always being the latest version without the upfront outlay.

Third, much more regular updating and improvements. Under a subscription based development model developers could be making changes, additions and fixes constantly to the core application without having to roll out a huge release or a new version every 2 years.

This, I believe, is the beginning of the avalanche. From this point forward over the next 5 years we’re going to see the Product/Commodity structure of current software sales dissolve to a much more flexible, efficient and adaptable Subscription/Service based model. Pay for what you need, when you need it, only for as long as you need it.

Posted at 12:00AM May 12, 2008 by Mike Jones in industry comment  |  Comments[3]