When Adobe takes over Fotolia will Shutterstock and iStock be forced to lower their Image-On-Demand (IOD) prices?
Since Getty lowered iStock prices last September non-exclusives images on iStock and Shutterstock images are priced about the same at roughly $10 per image for any file size. (Exclusive images on iStock require 3 credits so they are much more expensive.) However, Fotolia single images are priced 25% to 60% lower than Shutterstock on a yearly basis, and 60% to 75% lower if the customer purchases image packs on a monthly basis.
Adobe wants to integrate Fotolia into its subscription service, but it is hard to see how Adobe will be able to offer a single subscription price that will be a compelling reason for users to switch from Shutterstock, iStock and others to the Adobe offering.
Adobe will make it easy for its Creative Cloud customers to toggle back and forth between Fotolia and Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and its other programs. Then their selling point could be, Looking for images? Check out Fotolia. They have most of the same images youll find on other sites. And, Fotolias prices for single images are a fraction of what you pay on those other sites.
Customers will still buy the images through Fotolia, and then easily import their purchases to the Adobe software.
Will Shutterstock and iStock have to lower their prices to hang onto customers?
Will creators need to withdraw their work from Fotolia so Shutterstock and iStock can argue that the same images arent available on Fotolia?
What do you think?