Adobe To Retain More Than Half Of Its Creative Cloud Users Despite Many Complaints

Numerous concerns have been raised about Adobe Systems’ Creative Cloud in recent months, with technology experts predicting a decline in service usage in future. Against all odds, however, a vast majority of existing customers plan to continue with Adobe’s software and services for the next year as well, according to a survey of CNET.

The software giant’s Creative Suit has been under the scanner in past as it did not get any update and same has been the case with its Creative Cloud which gives access to various online services including CS software.

CNET conducted interviews of 187 Creative Cloud Users. 58 percent of the survey participants will go ahead and renew the membership, 23 percent are not sure about their future plans and 20 percent of them expressed their dissatisfaction and will not opt for Adobe’s Creative Cloud again.

While 57 percent retention might not be what Adobe would have liked, but taking into account the reputation of Creative Cloud, these figures should be quite heartening for the San Jose based company.

You may be interested in reading Adobe’s report of initial fiscal quarter of the ongoing year, which is scheduled to be published on March 18, 2014. It will give us a fair idea, how many new subscribers Adobe has gained.

While the Creative Suit is rapidly losing its popularity, the CNET report shows that the Cloud will remain competitive in the market at least for another year, because Abode has achieved about 400,000 new subscribers in the initial months of 2014.

Adobe’s value in the stock market reached an all-time high by the end of 2013, as it claimed to have crossed the figure of 1.44 million Creative Cloud subscribers. Since then, the stocks have further improved and are currently hovering around $68 mark.

Adobe might be getting more customers for Creative Cloud than expected, but it is also a matter of fact that a huge majority of users are unhappy by the company’s policy to discontinue service as soon as a customer stops paying and requires a new subscription. Adobe users consider the cancellation of a perceptually licensed product to be highly unfair, but the company is not intended to make any changes in its policy.

There are different kinds of Creative Cloud subscriptions available, but the most popular membership costs $50 per month for one-year deal, with access to a full range of services and products. During the first year, Adobe offered a promotional rate of $30 a month.

If you want the Creative Cloud for a shorter period of time, you will have to pay $75 per month for the complete collection of services; whereas, Photoshop Photography Program, which includes a limited time offer of Photoshop and Lightroom, and single-product subscriptions cost $20 per month.

The alarming news for Adobe in this survey is that the percentage of satisfied Creative Cloud users has dropped from 88 percent in December, 2012 to merely 51 percent by the end of first quarter of 2014.

I will keep you guys updated about Adobe’s reaction to the above mentioned statistics.