Adobe hits 1 million subscribers for Creative Cloud

As its earnings for the quarter dropped, Adobe announced today that its Creative Cloud software currently has one million monthly subscribers.

Almost a third of those subscribers joined in the past three months alone. Adobe reps say this is much “faster growth than expected.

Creative Cloud is exciting in that it represents an entirely new direction for Adobe’s business. Instead of paying a few hundred dollars for a box of software, developers and designers now pay monthly fees (starting around $10 or $20) for cloud-based services and features as well as downloadable software. It’s a complete turnaround in terms of revenue streams, and it also helps to curb piracy of the popular software.

“The writing is on the wall for where Adobe is headed, but people are surprised we’re going all in as soon as we are,” Adobe marketing director Scott Morris told VentureBeat in a recent interview.

“That’s the direction things are heading. This model lets us meet the new world way better than the old model ever would have.”

A big part of this direction is becoming more appealing to developers, not just designers. To that end, Adobe has rolled out a minisuite of products and features for those who trade in code. The Edge products focus on responsive design, cross-platform web work, and taking workflows from Photoshop to development environments with just a few clicks.

Additionally, Adobe announced that its first hardware products, a pen-and-ruler combo called Mighty and Napoleon respectively, will hit shelves in the first half of 2014.