Monday, May 13, 2013

Adobe CC. From selling assets to selling consumables.

Adobe recently made a massive switch: they switched from being a tool vendor to becoming a reseller of consumables. The Adobe CC is treated like a consumable (like electricity, petrol, toilet paper, air travel,...), whereas the Adobe CS was treated like an asset (like a chisel, a car, a house...).

The question on my mind is: if I look at companies selling consumables, how much innovation do I see? How much innovation is for the benefit of the consumer?

If I look at companies selling consumables from a monopoly situation, how much innovation do I see?

It'll be interesting to compare the amount of R&D in asset companies vs consumable companies.

Interesting times ahead!