Adobe has finally announced the release of its long-awaited and somewhat controversial Creative Cloud suite of design applications. In a blog post this morning, the company said that hundreds of new features and enhancements have been added to the updated versions of its apps, which include its flagship Photoshop CC, plus Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Adobe Muse CC, Dreamweaver CC, Edge Animate CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, and others.

Among the new changes, Adobe has released a new Creative Cloud app for desktop, which allows users to download and manage updates, connect with friends on the Behance portfolio-sharing network, keep tabs on their work and more. In addition, Adobe users will also be able to sync their settings to Creative Cloud, which means that settings like their preferences, libraries, brushes and presets will all be carried over to their other devices, without needing to set them manually.

The integration with Behance was also highlighted as a notable new feature. Adobe acquired the New York-based social network last year, and will now give all Creative Cloud users access to the Behance Prosite, enabling them to create websites where they can show off their work.

Other additions include Adobe Kuler, the cloud-based them app that lets users share color themes and access others through the Kuler website. Users will also be able to sync their favorite themes to make them accessible on any device using Illustrator CC.

Adobe said that all registered Creative Cloud users will be able to access the updates from today, which can be accessed through a rejuvenated app center on its main website. Meanwhile, enterprise and education customers will have to wait until June 21 to get their updates, while government users will receive them at the beginning of July.

Adobe’s Big Subscription Gamble

To be sure, few people are complaining about the quality of Adobe’s updates – its software undoubtedly remains the gold standard for designers everywhere – but along with these refreshments comes radical new changes to its pricing model, moving from a ‘perpetual license’ to a subscription-only based service that has taken some serious flak from current users.

Rather then buying a copy of Adobe’s software and that being that, users are now required to subscribe if they want to gain access to the company’s full suite of software, with subscriptions starting at $20 a month, or just $10 a month for those who only want to use one product (such as Photoshop).

A subscription model might make sense for professional users – after all, designers can make a serious amount of money, and having access to the latest updates for just $20 a month represents less than an hour’s work for many, but this isn’t the case with legions of photo-hobbyists who use Photoshop for non-commercial reasons. Now, these customers are faced with having to shell out a not inconsiderable sum of money each month if they want to keep up their hobbies – as the new subscription model will render the software inoperable the moment they forget to pay.

There’s no doubt that Adobe is alienating a significant portion of its user base, though it’s understandable why they are doing so. By moving to a subscription-only model, Adobe is securing itself a steady stream of revenue, and avoiding the 18-month product cycle it was previously subjected to. But the risk is that the returns from this model could be far less substantial than hoped for. Forbes contributor Amadou Diallo points out that Adobe’s tools are already so feature-rich and comprehensive that many users will likely feel that they have no need for the updates anyway, and instead stick with the older versions they currently have for years to come.

Adobe’s insistence on a subscription model could potentially create an opportunity for competitors such as Corel, which has already seized upon the move by announcing a special promotion for anyone looking to retain the old perpetual license model. Elsewhere, Adobe faces a potentially even more ominous threat in Google, which acquired image editing software firm Nik Software last year, and has since dramatically lowered the costs of its products.