Adobe's cloud services go paid

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 16th June 2009
Comments (9) Stumble
Adobe's cloud services go paid

Adobe's on-line collaborative office packages have finally gone gold - although the company is now looking to make some moolah.

Adobe's popular Acrobat.com cloud-based software suite has finally dropped its beta status – although it's not all good news, as the company has plans to start charging for some services.

As reported over on CNet, the company is keeping the five million users it has built up over the beta period and will always have basic functionality available for free. However, Adobe is introducing “premium plans” which will unlock additional features in the packages.

For those wanting to convert their cloud-based documents to PDF, Adobe is set to offer the “premium basic” package which will cost $14.99 month – allowing up to ten conversion each month. The package will also give you meetings via the cut-down version of Adobe Connect – ConnectNow – with up to five participants.

If you're a business user, you'll probably be wanting to look at the “premium plus” account for a not-inconsiderable $39 per month. This removes the restriction on how many PDF conversions you can carry out, and have ConnectNow meetings with up to twenty participants.

Although free accounts will still be on offer, these will be limited to five PDF conversions and meetings with just two participants – down from the three participants that the beta version offered.

The move away from beta also brings a collaborative spreadsheet application dubbed Tables. Based around a similar design to the company's collaborative word processor Buzzword, the Tables application is currently only available via the Adobe Labs beta testing site. As a beta service, access is currently free – and the company reportedly has no plans to limit access to paying customers once the service has finally gone gold.

Can you see yourself paying out for a subscription to Adobe's cloud services, or does cloud computing only hold appeal when it's free? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Jenny_Y8S 16th June 2009, 10:21
Charging for software? What has the world come to! :)
Quote Jamie 16th June 2009, 10:39
They wont be able to compete with Google if they charge for the same functionality that's already free.
Quote Skiddywinks 16th June 2009, 10:45
Never even of heard of these services. So what does it offer? Simple file conversions to pdf and video conferencing or something?
Quote Dreaming 16th June 2009, 11:36
oxymoron:
A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

e.g.
"premium basic"
Quote Evildead666 16th June 2009, 12:42
Just wait until they try and make u pay for surfing the web , not just the ADSL connection....
See how satellite and cable operate now, with bouquets ?
Sports, Films etc..?

Welcome to the Future of the Internet. Lock it down, and make people pay for everything.
Quote yakyb 16th June 2009, 13:20
ummm primo pdf is free an does a great job
Quote yodasarmpit 16th June 2009, 13:27
Quote:
Originally Posted by yakyb
ummm primo pdf is free an does a great job
^^^
Quote g3n3tiX 16th June 2009, 16:47
PDFcreator is nice too, works admirably.
Most of the people I know don't know about it. (on windows anyway). On linux pdf just works out of the box.
Quote fodder 16th June 2009, 21:22
Open office and google docs. Collaboration and PDF without the charges.
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