Forget cloud subscriptions: users prefer standard licences

British consumers aren’t yet ready to replace packaged software with monthly subscriptions, despite companies such as Adobe moving to such a model.

Only 2% of the 2,000 consumers surveyed on behalf of software firm Corel said they’d be willing to rent their software for a monthly fee, while almost two-thirds stated they’d prefer to buy it in a physical format. The remaining portion said they would prefer a one-off software download from the internet to their PC.

Adobe announced that it was canning its Create Suite packaged software earlier this month, instead charging a monthly fee for users to access apps such as Photoshop. The switch from fixed licence sales caused uproar among consumers concerned by the potentially greater cost over time.

Microsoft has said it’s considering a similar move for Office, describing Adobe as a “pioneer”, but said it hadn’t decided on a timeline and that it would base its decision on consumer feedback.

According to Corel – which also sells imaging software – almost half of UK users don’t actually understand what software subscriptions entail.

“One day a majority of people will use the cloud to rent or lease their software, but the research clearly shows that we are far from ready for that at the moment,” said sales vice president Amanda Bedborough.

Bedborough added that it was wrong for the likes of Adobe to “impose” the model on consumers. “Many UK consumers don’t like the idea of an on-going payment and are simply more comfortable with owning a physical product,” she said.