An example of how this manifests:

I’ve started enjoying to use Final Cut for personal video projects. I’m now wishing I could use it at my day job. But we have momentum with Premiere. We need old projects to work. We need to collaborate across the team. Etc.

Momentum keeps Adobe running. This is part of why totally new Adobe apps take off slow. And why Adobe has had success buying out the momentum other companies have built. See Substance, and many other acquisitions.

Autodesk runs on this momentum too.

I’m really happy to watch Blender grow and turn into something that has this sort of Momentum. It’s a wonderful counter example.

This is only one dimension to the whole situation. But I think it’s a strong one.

We just had this discussion at my office. Our newsletter editor is using an Adobe subscription. Even for a nonprofit, the price is going up to $650/year.

The problem is that she has been using Adobe products since the mid 1980s. So to switch, she would have to relearn alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, and a couple of other things that she has been using for more than 30 years.

We would have to inventory all the features she uses, and then make sure that whatever replacements she uses have the same capabilities. It just doesn't seem to be worth the time and frustration.