In a fascinating turn of events, it seems that Apple is looking to go after Adobe’s fanbase by chipping away to catch anyone looking to jump ship for more affordable alternatives. The company is looking to round up all of its creator apps into a single subscription cost, similar to Adobe. The only difference is that Apple’s collection will cost you a lot less.
Adobe lost some customers and maddened so many others when it switched to its subscription-only platform. I was one of those who walked away, as I just couldn’t justify the cost for how I use Adobe products at home (correction: used). I haven’t given Adobe a cent ever since they dropped perpetual licenses for the applications I used.
Since then, Adobe made things worse by raising costs and tightening its grip on users both here and even in smaller countries where the average user doesn’t make enough to afford it (ie, Brazil). The company has a great product, I cannot deny this. But I also cannot deny that Adobe has created a lot of enemies as it sought to squeeze as much as it could out of customers.
Now, Apple has announced its Creator Studio collection that includes titles like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Freeform, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage. All of these in one package, available in the App Store, and for a fraction of the cost of Adobe’s plans. Apple is only looking for $13/month or $130/year for their cost. To make things better, the cost comes way down for students.
This doesn’t mean that Apple is going to squash Adobe, as the app collections aren’t 100% similar, but it is enough that they could easily gain a lot of business from Adobe, nonetheless. I’d say that it would be enough to force Adobe to reconsider its subscription costs.
Not only does Apple offer a better price, but it also has the advantage of having its own hardware ecosystem that helps consolidate everything under one name. Apple users are more likely to stick to options within the ecosystem since these applications are tailored specifically for this hardware and by the company that knows it (the hardware) best. It also has a higher chance of maintaining reasonable pricing since its main focus is hardware sales, so the software package works as bait to draw new sales in.
That latter part also acts as a limitation, though, since Apple software is (again) tailored for this hardware and nothing else. So sales would be limited to those with Apple hardware or looking to shift over to it. So, those who are married to the idea of sticking to Windows as their OS of choice, these applications wouldn’t be an option.
