Adobe banking on its cool factor

BOSTON--Adobe Systems sees the so-called YouTube generation as its next big customer base.

At the JPMorgan Technology Conference here on Tuesday, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen explained how his company sees the market for its line of Creative Suite 3 software packages.

While Adobe has traditionally considered its base to comprise about 3 million professionals who return for each new software edition and continue to buy other Adobe products, that base is skewing toward nonprofessionals.

Chizen said his company estimates that there are about 38 million "aspiring professionals or amateur users" who want to be able to say they use what the pros use. They are now buying Adobe's lower-end packages. He cited several examples of young family members and friends who have suddenly become interested in getting "freebies." He contends that Adobe software is the new cool thing to have among the Web 2.0 set.

"Because of the social sites and sites like YouTube, everyone wants to create stuff that looks cool," Chizen said.

Chizen was pressed with questions from analysts on the price differences between Creative Suite 3 and Creative Suite 2 products. He initially said that because of CS3's new features and configurations, the comparison is akin to that of apples to oranges, but then he decided to answer the question.

"We still have lower price SKUs 'cause we don't want to alienate the 38 million-plus noncreative professionals. We have a lot of customer loyalty. We know customers will pay more, but we don't want them hating us 'cause we know that that will come back to haunt us," Chizen said. "I don't want our customers to have a perception of Adobe like the perception some have with Microsoft--like they're being held hostage."

[jeroneanderson]

how is this new?

The amateur market has always used Adobe software as far as I know. This market may be growing now but it is not new. Back in the early 1990s when I got my first flatbed scanner it came with Adobe Photoshop 2.5 LE on floopy disks and thus began my amateur tinkering with photos and web pages. Adobe is seeing what is a much broader trend toward the average computer user doing more with their computers than they used to. Manipulating music, video, and photos is the natural extension of widely available, inexpensive computing power.

[TravisOwens]

Who's really holding you "hostage"

>> "I don't want our customers to have a perception of Adobe like the perception some have with Microsoft--like they're being held hostage."

What glue is this guy sniffing, Adobe isn't any better, in fact they're worse. Microsoft updates it's products every 3-5yrs and charges very good rates and usually adds significant features.

Adobe updates it's products every 2 years and charges ungodly amounts. How about the fact that if you just want a PDF print driver you have to buy Adobe's $300 PDF solution when all you want is for your existing software (ex: Word) to output a PDF for you.

PS: I know Office 2007 includes free SaveAs to PDF, in fact that feature only proves that Adobe's PDF solutions are out of the reach of even most businesses who want PDF solutions without spending millions.

[Mark_Smith]

If the things were bad for the Graphic Designers....

now maybe Adobe is planning to kill all of them of starvation.

[Toulinwoek]

Adobe Is "Banking" All Right!

OK. help me out here. Photoshop CS3 costs $650, but the upgrade price is $200. That's just an example; all their stuff is like that.

I was going to ask if people are really this gullible, but the sales records at Adobe make the answer to that question obvious. Not to mention their maniacal laughter at those id--...well, I'll just leave it at that.

They're selling a $200 program for $650! Assuming the vast majority of their buyers would be upgrade users, why are they punishing first timers to the tune of $450, then going on about how nice they are trying to be?

They do make some great software, but I'm sorry, it's overpriced to the point of being stupid!

[Toulinwoek]

Oh, and by the way...

Chizen says Adobe doesn't want to hold folks hostage. That's true, they're going straight for the out-and-out robbery!

Stick 'em up, Joe. Gimmie that money, fool!

[kyle5434]

Upgrade sheep

Adobe also seems to have a similar sway over its customers as Apple does - people paying for upgrades because of the "cool factor" whether they actually need them or not.

I'm a "serious amateur" digital photographer, and I still contend that Photoshop CS is the best version they've released in terms of features vs. bloat. Any of the new features in CS2 and CS3 that I would actually use can be had via plugins or actions (many of which are freely available on the web).

Never mind the fact that the "YouTube generation" that they're trying to attract is mostly downloading the software for free via BitTorrent anyway...