Pricing analysis - Production Premium

Question

OK, so 2 years ago, I bought CS5.5 Web Design Premium. A few months later, the introduction of Production Premium and my dissatisfaction with the product set in Web Premium, plus all the benefits in CS6 saw me eagerly handing $375 to upgrade to Production Premium CS6. I have used that suite for nearly 2 years and am quite happy with it in all areas except Premiere Pro, which I am using a LOT more right now and CS6 is missing some key features from CC that are very significant to me (audio sync and Speedgrade roundtripping).
Now there is CC, which gives me a choice between Master Collection for $600/yr or $240/yr for ONLY Premiere Pro CC.
Now there's also a discount being proffered here of 40% - which I'll assume is going to end up being a 1 time thing. That would drop it to MC for $360 and Prem Pro for $144.
Given that CC has been out for some time now, it should be coming into Adobe's head that ALL CC users are now coming into the period of time where that 40% disappears. For users that haven't upgraded, it becomes quite obvious that any deals of "40% off" are extremely limited.
For most users, Adobe products are a significant expense. Yes, I use it for work, but I use a copy I purchased personally, and because my job is not specifically a graphic artist and my use of Adobe at work is only a part of my job description, I am not reimbursed for this. Further, job security in a difficult economy means that if my work DID pay for my Adobe habit, losing that job would mean that suddenly I am tied to $600/yr out of my own pocket.
Additionally, Adobe users tend to be "long haul" type professionals. We don't look at purchases in terms of a few months. We look at them in terms of ROI and long term usage. I started a business on the side 6 months ago. I created a 5 year overall plan for it. I had a meeting yesterday that set out a roadmap for video projects and marketing materials plans that involve months as being small increments. This means that a 40% discount, while *nice* is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. It puts the upgrade cost at the same as the $375 for Suite users, but forces a move to the Master Collection cost tier, which is unacceptable for the long term. I am looking at Adobe as a significant part of my life for the next 25+ years. 40% for one year is meaningless. 40% locked in would be a totally different story.
So as a "Premium Suite" type user here is the pricing analysis. 40% is irrelevant beyond one year, so is not even worth considering:
CS product - $375/upgrade. $427 with tax. Upgrade cycle: every version = once a year, every other version = once every 2 years. =$375/yr or $187.50/yr (I am typically an 'every other version' type upgrader).
Premiere Pro CC - $240/yr. A single product which would cost more than upgrading every other year.
Complete Creative Cloud - $600/yr. All the products I use and several I don't.
So comparing $600/yr for Creative Cloud vs $200/yr for upgrading my Suite every other year, I am now faced with a rather disappointing solution.
In terms of budget for work, if I was given a budget of $200, in *WHAT UNIVERSE* would that budget then be approved for $600? In the real world, under those circumstances, I would be told to 'figure something out' to make my budget work. In the digital world, those are not words that Adobe wants skilled technical people to be using. Most of these users are well aware of pirated options out there and are making a firm moral decision not to take that road.
There *MUST* be an option for non-Master Collection users. We can't be that small of a group.
Would I pay $375/yr to use Production Premium CC? No. Probably not. Most Adobe users I know are every other year type upgraders too. This is *especially* true of non-Master Collection users, who tend to be willing to spend, but also looking for 'cost effective solutions'.
Knowing that my budget EXPECTS $200/yr, would I pay $275/yr for Production Premium CC? Begrudgingly... probably. And I'd probably still wait another 6 months or so, using CS6 and feeling annoyed.
Would I pay $225/yr for Production Premium CC? That's probably around the point where I would look for that 40% deal for the first year and slap down my plastic TODAY, even though I don't really feel a need to upgrade anything more than Premiere Pro.
So there's your feedback Adobe. Please take note.
If you don't want to listen, I can pretty much guarantee you that I won't be switching to a $600/yr pay scheme at any point in the next 3 years. Probably 5.
What would you rather have? 5 years at $225 = $1100
or 0 years at $600/yr = $0
I recommended to my mother that now that she is retired, she should pay $9.99/mo for Photoshop CC. I think it would be great for her and I think the monthly pay scheme is perfect for that. She can turn it off an on as desired.
I am a *totally* different type of customer. So is pretty much everyone else who needs anything more than a single Adobe product.

Answer 1

Hi All,
We posted a fix for this to Akamai's configuration on 3:07pm PT Saturday 5/1/2010.
If you downloaded the Production Premium .7z file via a java based browser (Firefox etc) prior to that, then you will have to redownload.  I apologize for the inconvienence.  You can either redownload using the Akamai DLM or you can download using direct HTTP links.
If you want to download via HTTP directly, I recommend you use Firefox, since it handles  downloading of files larger than 2Gb (some versions of Internet Explorer  won’t do a file bigger than that)
1.       Go to the page in the store where  you see your downloads for your purchase.
Then cut and paste this URL and put it into  the address bar (where you type in url links) to get the big .7z file
http://esd.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/STVD/CS5/win32/ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.7z
2.       Then repeat the above to get the  .exe file
http://esd.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/STVD/CS5/win32/ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.exe
if you are on Mac then  use this URL
http://esd.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/STVD/CS5/win32/ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.dmg
Hopefully, they will  both download.   Then just double click the .exe file to  kick off the installation.   The .exe file uses the .7z  file, so make sure they are in the same directory and don’t change their  filenames.
Here  are the filesizes and checksum (you can verify them with fastsum    ...see www.fastsum.com )
Filename
Filesize
MD5
ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.exe
1228424
2224403328920192f9e06dec9903644c
ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.7z
7693369548
355496e3db52531620694a6f6a0ea79c
ProductionPremium_CS5_LS7.dmg
9228049321
458b6924d51fca021e6777f70907b577
Hope that helps.  Again so sorry for the inconvience this has cause all of you.
karen