Is it just me that gets annoyed when buying design software?
- Why does it have to cost so much when if they sold it for a little less more people would buy it rather than copy it and pay nothing?
- Why does free and cheap software seem to come with far superior support than the software you need to sell your soul to buy? The best support I have ever received was for a small script I paid about £15 for, but I got little response on a Adobe forum when my new version of Photoshop kept crashing .
- Why do I pay nearly £1000 (Quark, Adobe Creative Suite) for software but they can’t throw in a printed manual.
- Why is the cost of the new upgrade on Adobe Creative Suite not that much cheaper than the offers for new users to buy it from scratch?
- If you are having problems with new software, why do software makers always blame it on other software, your system, clashing software etc, is it never a bug in their software?
What do you think?
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18 Comments
Great post. I think people would use illegal software regardless.
While I hate the high price I have to pay for software, I’m actually quite pleased that now I only have to pay $599 USD to Adobe for an upgrade vs the $599 + $499 I had to pay to Adobe and Macromedia. From your list though – I’d probably drop paying for Quark…InDesign is on par with anything Quark does, especially with printers using PDFs.
Hi Nate,
I have tried Indesign, they used it at one of the places I used to freelance in house for, I wasn’t keen with the way it handled images. The problems is that I am far quicker in quark as I have been using it for about 15 years and am confident everything will split properly. Although I would initially save money, I think my extra time would make up for it. However if I was just starting out I would definitely go for Indesign.
Software is so much cheaper in the US than the UK, we pay nearly the equivalent in pounds to your dollars
Why do they get away with it? Because they can! If you want to use the market-leading software packages, then you have to either pay market-leading prices or pirate it.
Open source software to rival the CS3 suite isn’t ever going to happen, so we’re stuck with the paid option.
My main peave is the lack of realistic exchange rate! I fail to see how a company charging a thousand dollars for something can convert that to a thousand pounds! It’s not just Adobe – Apple are guilty of it too!
I agree with you there paul, I will never understand the justification behind charging the same price for software in the US and the UK.
My main problem is with upgrade fees, after paying that much for the software in the first place, they could throw in upgrades for free (or for a token)
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I guess the better customer support for cheaper software comes from the fact that because it is so cheap, or free, more people use it and therefore there are more people who would have run into and found solutions for almost any problem you might have.
My peeve is that I ordered and paid for an upgrade to CS3 in March and I’m still waiting for it to arrive …
Hi Paul “My main peave is the lack of realistic exchange rate!” I’m with you there, in the UK we get ripped off big time for anything like this.
Hi Tolumi, I agree with you on the upgrades, I don’t ind paying something but I think they should be considerably cheaper.
Hi Tracey, Sound a nightmare, so if I want it for Christmas I better order it now I guess
HAHAHA….
Happy Nightmares…
I am getting bugged coz I am shifted from PC to Mac…
and the way i built the biz, my partner handles 3dsmax, maya, zbrush… so on.. and myself PS, illustrator, 3dsmax, flash, dreamweaver..
Even if i put myself on Sale! I wont be able to recover the money..
Software in India comes out cheaper than US, but again..whatsoever people are forced to do even if they don’t want to do///
The price of software is insane- thank goodness I can write it off on my taxes.
I am not a good blogger so I’m sorry if I have done this wrong. I am trying to find out if most people are starting to use In Design more than Quark. We are having a lot of trouble with Quark and are thinking about switching to In Design. Thoughts?
When you’ve bought up your closest rival and the entire industry is leaving Quark in droves there’s little incentive for Adobe to drop their price. They know that people will stump up the cash regardless because they are tied into the technology.
Wow, I’m really surprised about the price difference. That just doesn’t make sense to me! Can you buy it on a site like New Egg and just pay the international shipping? Adobe was probably smart enough to see that one, though.
Adobe has spent a lot of money making CS was it is, especially on the usability end. It’s pretty intuitive once you get around the first learning curve of new software. And like Carlton said, they know it, which means they’ll charge for it. I suppose we should really hail Adobe as absolutely brilliant for making us so dependent on their products! But we’re on the other end, so we hates it, Precious!
I am using InDesign. I was one of the first classes at my college to be taught this program instead of Quark. I like it. It always plays nice with other Adobe products and its shortcuts are similar, too. Nothing frustrated me more than going back and forth between Adobe and Maya (3D software) because of those stupid shortcuts!
Hi Carlton and Michelle, Thanks for your comments, Michelle I have only dabbled with Indesign, but prefer Quark because I know it far better, but I know a lot other readers will disagree with me.
Hi Lauren, I have tried buying software from the US. The trouble is you get charged customs taxes and then the post office also charges you to collect the money (how kind) so it ends up not being much cheaper.
Tara, I don’t think there’s anything to disagree with you about using Quark vs. InDesign. It’s a personal preference really! And I think you are right in choosing one over the other because you know you’ll get faster and better results (even if someone else would not).
I do however think that the industry is quickly moving away from Quark and towards InDesign, especially since Adobe was smart and packaged it (“oo! a freebie!” Not.) with CS. Plus, Quark hasn’t been all that great in updating their software and they’ve severely suffered for it. I’m sure there are still designers out there who use Fireworks instead of Photoshop. It’s not the tools that matter, it’s the concepts and subsequent execution (unless, of course, your printer stops accepting Quark files! But then you could just print to PDF)
I completely agree with you. I found that CS3 has backtracked on a lot of things and for someone who has been using Adobe through 11 versions, I’m starting to think that some companies just want to make more money without offering anything new (with the exception of Flash CS3 which offers AS3, though an original Macromedia product). What I found in expensive software is slower processing in version updates, changes in interface and an increase on price per year. All of these are major no-no’s in the software engineering world and customer service. Everyone says “well, just buy a better computer” – we shouldn’t have to. Thank you for writing something that isn’t so positive about industry standard software.
PS- About Quark vs InDesign: I usually find print houses to prefer Quark as it’s easier to pre-press. I find that designers prefer InDesign more as do I. Neither is out-performing the other though, not yet!
Hi Louisa,
Thanks for your comment.
“’m starting to think that some companies just want to make more money without offering anything new ”
I know what you mean, I have ben looking at the new Adobe packages, and none of them really have what I want altogether as a bundle, but its not worth buying the packages individually, so you end up buying a bundle with software you don’t want. A pick and mix option would be ideal.
“Why do I pay nearly £1000 (Quark, Adobe Creative Suite) for software but they can’t throw in a printed manual.” >> So true! I guess that we don’t spend enough so they need us to spend more on buying guides or waste hours searching for help online. Paint Shop Pro has been something I’ve been pleasantly surprised with, though. It isn’t Adobe, but it can handle alot of the same tasks.
You would expect that updates for those who have been loyal would reduce over time based on that loyalty.
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If you look at the business model that successful airlines are using, you see that more money can be made by selling at a lower price. That isn’t contradictory because the increased sales volume more than makes up for the lower price.
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