Not more numbers!
Look, I spent all those years in accounting, so you’ll have to humour me when I point you in the direction of more financial numbers from Adobe. In fact their stock price never really interested me until recently, so I can readily understand if you have never gone looking for their quarterly results, but do take a look at Adobe Reports Strong Q2 FY2013 Financial Results and the more-digestible powerpoint slides.
There’s probably just one nugget of information worth polishing and keeping in your pocket – they have now reached 700,000 subscribers to their Creative Cloud. So those 700,000 have voluntarily chosen the subscription route over buying a traditional licence. They’ve probably made a rational decision too.
Going forward, new customers and upgraders are no longer offered any choice – you either subscribe, or you don’t upgrade. With the only option being this Hobson’s choice, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in 6 months’ time they Adobe hit or exceed their published target of 1.25 million subscribers at the year end. The cynic in me, or just the former corporate accountant, believes you don’t publish numbers you won’t meet, so you just have to wonder what the real target is. But prepare yourself for Adobe trumpeting this somewhat-hollow success….
Wouldn’t it be great if you could subscribe and tick a box asking not to be included in the count of the willing?