Need to chuckle for a minute.
In the spin, Adobe attempts to paint CC move in a positive light, here:
""We launched Creative Cloud a year ago and it has been a runaway success," said David Wadhwani, Adobe SVP and general manager of Digital Media"
Hmmm... runaway success? Let's move on to what almost sounded like a paid advertisement in CNET:
The author includes this nugget: "Adobe said it's got an installed base of 8.4 million customers using CS suites and 4.4 million using point products. For the Creative Cloud subscriptions, the number is 479,000 for the end of the first quarter and Adobe projects an increase to 1.25 million by the end of 2013." In his zeal to support Adobe, he fails to even think about what he is writing.
So... a 6% transition over 1 year is considered a runaway success? Or is it a 3.7% transition? Is the 479K the number signed up for the FULL monty? 479K out of 8.4 million? Or is it 479K out of 12.8 million COMBINED CS and individual product users?
And, I wonder how many of those folks would've TRIED this program if they knew that their actions were going to be used a evidence of support to what is now (in it's current form) a LIFETIME financial committment?
Adobe gets 39,000 per month to sign up in the first year... and they realistically think this is going to DOUBLE now that they've made this announcment? They don't even have any idea what the renewal rate is going to be after the first year... it's barely 1 year old! What if people were thinking that they'd try it, not knowing that there was no going back? I've got to believe some of them are having buyers remorse, knowing that they contributed to this mess!
I think Adobe and it's devotees are missing the point. It's not about the cost per year, or the cost per revision cycle. And it is not about some imagined insatiable need to have the updates the minute they are released! It's about the mandated lifetime committment to Adobe.