Adobe Systems, which produces some of the most popular software packages for creative professionals, including Photoshop and Illustrator, has been aggressively promoting it's Creative Cloud (CC) services over the past year. In fact, we wrote on this blog a few weeks ago about how these products provide users with more immediate feature upgrades than the perpetual license model (referred to as Creative Suite, or CS), in which users purchase upgraded software every few years.

But at the time of that post it was unclear how Adobe would move forward, whether it would continue to publish perpetual license software or eliminate it entirely and devote all future development to Creative Cloud.

This week, the company answered that question by announcing that, going forward, the only way to purchase their creative software applications would be through Adobe CC, by paying a monthly subscription fee that entitles the user to upgrades as they become available.

The decision was shocking to many long-time customers of Creative Suite, which is used by professionals in the desktop publishing, photography and video production industries. Now, rather than paying upwards of $1500 for a copy of the Master Suite, which included all Adobe CS products, customers can pay a $49.99 monthly fee that allows them access to all applications, or $29.99 to use just one.

According to Fox Business, Adobe CC currently has 500,000 subscribers, and the company's engineers expect that number to grow to 4 million by the end of 2015.

Adobe CC products work fantastically on Apple computers, including the 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display. If you're in the market for a customized laptop that will meet your needs as a creative professional, look no further than the online store of PortableOne.