Corel follows Adobe

[M.U.D.]

Hi All,

Came across this on the website Digital Arts http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/n...scribers-only/:

Corel has released CorelDraw Suite X6.2, but many of the new features are available only to users who have signed up for its Premium Membership, which costs £79.50 plus VAT a year. This follows the subscription path offered by Adobe's Creative Cloud and Autodesk's Subscription programme for tools such as Maya and 3DS Max.

Regards,
M

[Cloud]

This is not at all surprising. As in any business, where the market leaders lead the rest follow, whether it is apple or adobe, the rest may mock for a while but they all follow.

[mwenz]

You did see that article is from a year ago?

The two directions that Adobe and Corel have taken are not the same. It is yet to be seen whether Corel will keep to its stated commitment to perpetual licensing. CorelDraw's 6.3 and 6.4 update have brought a couple items into CD that were premium subscription only at the time of that article's writing.

When CS6 came out, and along with it CC, Adobe announced that all the changes in the CC version of the application would be rolled into CS7 (perpetual license) version. That of course did not happen. Time will tell if Corel follows the same path or not. I think for Corel it would be a true death knell. Adobe is far larger, all of its revenue doesn't come from software. I think Adobe can get away with such a move (at least in the near term) whereas for Corel it would be the end.

[M.U.D.]

You did see that article is from a year ago?

Thanks Mwenz,

I skimmed the date and focused on the "Nov 30", and missed the "2012" bit.

With the repercussions of the Adobe CC move, any news of this sort jumps out at me.

I was puzzled by the strategy, because as you say, it would be a foolish thing for Corel to do at this stage.

I'm sure lots of people are hoping that there will be viable non-subscription vector software alternatives available in the future.

By the way Mwenz, thanks for your mention of Photoline a while ago. As a result I've been trying it out. Astonishing program and very fast on my oldish XP machine, also takes up very little space on the hard drive.

Regards,
M

[MyCoalescen]

Corel currently has for CorelDraw Suite x6, 4 buying models.
1. Buy cd
2. Buy from download
3. Buy cd/download + 100$/year for premium membership (cloud and early access to new features)
4. 100% subscription for 200$/year with cloud and early access to features

This is far from what adobe has done with CC. Its also not microsoft of buy or subscribe. Corel is the only one I know that offers this many buying options or a buy + subscription. The price is not crazy like CC. Upgrades for Draw are 200$ and new editions about every 2 years which is the exact same for 2 years of buy + premium and not too different from 100% subscription if you include the initial buy price. The access to new features is early access and is being given to all in time as we have seen.

Corel has with though x6.4 upgrades had updates FREE to all. About 1/10 of the updates for Draw are premium only. The fact that they are giving free significant updates which are more like mini upgrades away for free says a lot about the direction they are taking. They are not trying to squeeze every penny from its customers as CC is. They are giving away with x6.4 40 free fonts and premium is only 23 more. Im in graphic design and that is money in the bank. Consider a font can cost up to 100$ or more. This is the opposite direction of business to adobe who gives you nothing for free. I was shocked when I first saw corel gives away free mini upgrades. This is also part of corels answer to CC. Adobe said it could never do upgrades quickly and corel shows you can do effective meaningful mini upgrades a few times a year to keep up with what is new. Assuming the free updates are for the current edition this encourages people to keep buying the current edition as they know it will stay current with all the mini upgrades. It is an alternate way to do CC while still keeping your perpetual license and not paying any more for it.

Im a new corel user and am very impressed by them. This is one reason im willing to pay a bit more for corel than some companies because they are giving away mini upgrades. Again I know of no one else who is giving away free upgrades to their none free product and corel has not just been doing this the last 1 year but longer than that showing its not just some fad in direct response to the May cc issue. Not sure when/if corel will do a premium for its other products but it seems they are testing the water to see how people react and see if it is a good decision. Ive heard 0 complaints about premium membership and hundreds about CC. Im not even talking pricing or issues Im just talking about technical issues of CC having massive problems. I suspect corel will do a premium membership for its other big products as said Painter and Paint Shop with time. I see no down side to keeping license and paying for premium for the same upgrades I probably would have gotten for the same price but earlier.

Check this link to see the Draw updates. It lists what is premium membership only and its very few of the features.
http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...od4260069#tab7

[Gamerprinter]

Corel has a nice suite of tools, but I'm not a fan of the company. My first vector drawing app of choice was Micrografx Designer which I used most of its editions from 1.0 onward. It had the best drawing tool/bezier tool on the market, not even Xara's Pen Tool can compare. Then Corel bought Micrografx because it was a direct competitor (among midrange priced graphics tools), and Corel killed it. So without Micrografx, I needed a new tool, so that's when I discovered Xara (I was never going to go Corel... they broke my heart.) I still use an old version of Micrografx, if I have a very detailed set of lines and curves to work with for export to .AI for sign work. It is still the best drawing tool, IMO - easiest to get exactly placed lines.

[MyCoalescen]

Thank you for confirming that one of xaras strong points is its draw program. Its on my to do list for january. Im still in college and graduate in july. Next semester is up in the air for me still. Im on the wait list for 4 classes. May get into none or all. Probably get the 2 art history classes which are easy. I also work part time and will have my internship. Between all that I should have a little time to play with xaras trial versions and those of other companies. Who knows if for some reason I end up loving xara photo and graphics or web I could always piece out my software. Im not 100% set on any provider right now. I just know I dont being drinking the CC juice.

I do know something that are off the table. I dont intend to go for freeware as good as they are because they seem to be understandably developed slowly. Im willing to way for the best as long as Im not in a contract. Page and layout designer sounds average at best. Serifs current web plus x7 sounds like a disaster of bugs.

[Gamerprinter]

I find the best Xara solution is the full flagship product - Xara Designer Pro, since it handles all your drawing, web design, and page layout duties in a single application, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I bought the first version of Xara Xtreme, loved it, and stuck with Xara's full program everytime I upgraded, though I've only upgraded twice (XX to XXP4 to XDP9).

As an aside, actually, I promoted my affiliate account fairly heavily during XX1 days, and my upgrade to XXP4 was paid for thru affiliate payments.