Luminar AI vs Neo key differences?
Answered
I'm curious, what will be the key differences between "Neo" and "Luminar AI" the way you market it seems like they are both very similar.
I have Luminar AI if you can kindly let me know why I should get "Neo"
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Hi Sascha,
Please kindly note that Luminar Neo is based on unique technologies developed by Skylum and works on a module system, thus, it's a different product than Luminar AI. However, most of the features from Luminar AI will still be available in Luminar Neo.
We will continue supporting Luminar AI and also ship updates for things like the forthcoming Windows 11 from Microsoft.
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@Markus Zell: Sorry ich Wechsel mal kurz auf Deutsch und reiche ggf den englischen Text nach. Aber das muss ich schnell los werden.
Bei Luminar inside fragte jemand, was denn für ein business model ist und ob es nicht besser wäre, wenn man bestimmte Funktion usw optional hinzunehmen könnte(grob zusammengefasst).
Die offizielle Antwort hat mich sprachlos gemacht.
"This is exactly what we aim for..." war die Aussage
Das würde bedeuten, das wir irgendwann eine "Basisversion" kaufen und sämtliche erweiterten Funktionen oder neue Funktionen nachträglich kaufen müssten. Denn genau das impliziert die Aussage von Skylum.
Ich habe diese These mal als Frage gestellt und warte noch auf eine Antwort.
Aktuell widerspricht sich Skylum bei Aussagen etwas oder lässt Fragen unter den Tisch fallen. -
Sascha, I don't think we really need an answer to this. Their track record makes it pretty clear. They'll "support" AI with the bare minimum for a year...ish, but we won't see any further major performance updates or anything. And they've already said it won't grow in complexity, which means no new features either. AI will never be a completely stable, fast, or reliable piece of software. They say they're two different programs for different purposes (lol), but no... Neo is the new AI.
A completely new program so that it's not easy to simply switch from one to the other (of course). Neo will have it's own share of bugs and significant performance issues for the duration of it's lifespan, before it's abandoned for Luminar Morpheus or Luminar Trinity or whatever they'll call the next one. Which will have an all new "core engine." But don't worry, you can keep using Neo as long as you want. They'll provide a year's worth of bare-minimum upgrades for it as well, even though they never really got it to a place where it was actually fast, reliable, and stable.
And on goes the merry-go-round.
Skylum, if you're actually taking all of this feedback to heart (haha), please hear this: If you had made Luminar AI your new base, and simply kept improving on it with new major paid feature updates, while keeping the base software and engine the same... while focussing heavily on providing us with the fastest most stable editor you could... you would have had a winner.
But as it stands, I'll take a transparent and clear subscription model for software that I can actually count on to this scummy stuff any day. :(
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I also feel cheated. This type of move makes me understand why some people download cracked versions of software rather than pay for the full price. I wanted to trust on luminarAI, I was one of the early adopters, and as a reward? I got stab in the back. Instead of fixing what is wrong and called it AI v2.0, they took all our feedback, apply it, and call it Neo. This will be the last time I ever buy software from that company. It s just no ethical practices. So disappointed!!!!
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Hi! Please reach our support team and we will investigated the issues: https://skylum.com/support
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Context: I bought Luminar AI before it shipped. And I've already purchased Luminar Neo.
But Luminar: you need to know that this borders on sleazy/exploitive. AI was janky for the first few months, then tightened up, and 10 minutes later you announce Neo. If you do this again in 2022, your company won't recover. It won't just be a mistake of marketing execution, it will be a demonstrated pattern of an indifferent commitment in your customers. I know it's not your intent, but it's interpreted by your customers as contempt.
Making matters worse, your responses come across as defensive, evasive responses and just a bit too clever. They betray that you know you're crossing a line. I imagine you had a lot of internal debates on this course of action. You should always bias toward existing customers...they're a huge asset for most companies.
It would be MUCH BETTER if you just charged more for your products than this short-life nickel & diming. It is a terrible marketing strategy (and remember: I'm actually buying Neo).
One last observation: when I bought AI, I was responding to a "great" pre-release deal. I took a chance on you guys. I now see anyone can buy it for 50% cheaper.
MY RECOMMENDATION TO SKYLUM RE MARKETING STRATEGY:
- SOMEBODY at Skylum should be responsible for your brand integrity, customer advocacy and marketing strategy. It SHOULDN'T be a software engineer.
- EXTEND development & enhancement of AI (and all products) for a full 24 months after initial release. (Look at Affinity for their policies, growth, success, and supportive customers who are a huge source of new customers.)
- Allow all recent AI purchasers (not me...say the last 3 months) to get Neo for free. They appropriately presumed that AI (being a young product) would incorporate related photo tech innovations for at least the first 12 months of product life.
- Make your pre-release prices the lowest for the life of the product. Never give people a reason to regret an early/supportive purchase.
- Review your pricing. It's likely too low. I'm getting Neo for $39 (repeat customer), which is a deal - unless you're going to very quickly EOL it, as I now suspect you will (like it seems w/ AI). You don't have to be in that sleazy business. It raises your unit marketing costs and customer attrition way beyond what's necessary. If you go that route, it's a treadmill of annual releases of thin product with marginal innovations. It's good cashflow initially, but it will decay over time. No one built a big software business following your strategy.
- Be forthright with your customers. It's not too late. If you didn't intend to create this response, apologize and adapt. People are very forgiving. Your Q3 & Q4 revenue may take a dip (likely not), but your 2022->2025 financials will be much better.
Good luck! I'm a fan but I can spot good innovation engineering and bad marketing from a mile away. You seem to have both.
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Bill Y,
I know you are trying to help, the only problem is they are too arrogant to listen to any of their customers! This was all said last year when they did the same thing and the year before. As long as people will keep on buying this crap they have no reason to change. Enough said and good luck...
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I hear ya. I buy the software because it's worth it even if they treat me like crap later. But I always start by presuming the best of intentions. I think most people want to do a good job and serve their customer well. This, however seems outside their abilities & instincts. Not sure if its a EUR/US vs Ukraine thing, but it's a problem...
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Hi Bill Youstra!
I am so sorry to hear that you have had an unpleasant experience working with our software.
Customer satisfaction is always a number one priority for us. I'm deeply sorry that that wasn't clearly demonstrated to you.
As for updating Luminar AI, we typically ship compatibility and minor feature updates during 12-24 months after the release. The updates are free.
The upgrades are always optional, we understand and respect the decisions of our customers to keep the current version that remains functional and will be supported by the team.
Also, according to our policies, we do provide a free Luminar Neo copy for those who recently (from late July till early September) purchased Luminar AI.
As for the pricing, I will pass your concern to our marketing team and bring their attention to it.
I appreciate you letting us know about your experience. We strive to ensure every customer is satisfied with our software, and your input matters to us. Once again, I apologize for any way in which we may have inconvenienced you.
Thank you for staying with us.
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Hi Anastasiia,
I'm sorry to say that once again we do not get the truth from you: my purchase date of Luminar AI was 8th of July, which is definitely inside the period you mentioned (a couple of months). So far I did not get a free Luminar Neo copy (or a notification that I would get one). Instead I was asked to pay 49 € for that.
Maybe you should clarify internally what you're going to do before announcing those steps to your customer base.
Markus.
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It was also not clear to me and I just preordered Neo, because the risk is minimal. But now you say a couple of month which was not communicated before. I bought on the 3rd July this year. So if this is in the Periode of „couple of month“ I need to know so I request a refund for Neo preorder.
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Started of with Luminar 2018 and liked it a lot. Bought it, thinking it would get nice updates like a proper library functionality.
Which it got... In a new version you had to buy (again). This has repeated multiple times.
Atm I own:
- Luminar 2018
- Audora HDR 2018 (should be a module feature of AI)
- Luminar 3
- Luminar Flex
- Luminar 4
- Luminar AI (Bought it in march, as preview, and now 6 months later already obsolete :-( )
All could have been just updates. (don't give me the rebuild core.. blabla.. I'm a developer myself. Know the game.)
Like the other said. Luminar AI isn't even stable yet. And already you guys are coming with a 'new' product. Which should be a (free) upgrade. Old feature in a new skin/jacket (whatever you call it)
Not gonna buy NEO either. And definitely not gonna promote Luminar to others anymore. -
Please accept my apologies for the vague statement I made. We provide a free copy for those customers who purchased Luminar AI within the grace period - from late July till early September. Once the preorder was launched, the Luminar Neo logo appeared in the Skylum accounts of the customers who got Luminar AI with this period I mentioned. Once again, I'm sorry that my reply only confused our users instead of bringing the clarification. I did not mean to misinform anyone in this thread.
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Hi Tobias,
If you wish to check if your Luminar AI purchase was made within Grace period, please get in touch with our support team at https://skylum.com/support. They will check everything for you.
If your purchase was indeed made within Grace period, you should already see Luminar Neo being displayed in your Skylum account. Once the app is released, the download link will appear in your account.
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Hello Margaret,
As Anastasiia wrote that the grace period startet late Juli. I ordered it 27.07.2021
After contacting the support like you proposed, they wrote me right now that I am out of the grace period.
If 27.07 is not late Juli I don't know what late Juli means.
Can you please check my request?
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Tobias,
don't worry, that's the same direction what we had with Anastasiia's first statement, that the grace period should be "a couple of months" before Neo was released. This shrank down to "from late July on". Well, now it will shrink to "from 30th July on" - at least until the next community member comes to ask for his grace period download... :-)
I assume you now have a better understanding of the Skylum Business Model. For me this is not a product and a company I can trust, kicked out their products from my workflow for that reason.
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Hi guys,
Allow me to clarify.
The Grace period is the period between July 27 and September 9. If you purchased Luminar AI between July 27 and September 9, you’ll get the Luminar Neo image editor for free when it’s released.
Tobias, it looks like your purchase was made on July 25, and regrettably, it is not within the Grace period.
If you have any questions or concerns about this, please get in touch with our support team at https://skylum.com/support. They will be happy to help!
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OK. As mentioned by other members of the forum the date was not transparent.
You are right, if forwarded the purchase mail the 27.07 to my primary mail account. The purchase itself was 25.07. This is still within the last week of Juli. Too bad if you are not that cullant to accept this late July date as well for a fresh purchased product.
Perhaps you can ask you colleagues at the support again.
Thank you very much
Tobias
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Yikes! You guys seriously had someone reach out to you (a loyal customer) that purchased the program TWO days before your invisible we-don't-tell-anyone-at-all "grace period," and you refused? Do you have anyone there evaluating your customer-service decisions... from a customer-centric side? Like... you're actively making choices to frustrate as many people off as you can, it's insane. I understand that at some point there's got to be a cut off, hence this date that no one knows about... but case-by-case you've got to see the value in providing above-and-beyond customers service. How much better would Tobias's opinion of your company be if someone there had replied and said "Hey, you're unfortunately outside of the grace period by a couple days, but don't worry - we've got your back. Here's a copy of Neo on us, thanks for your support!"
Hope the $35-70 odd bucks you pocketed by saying no was worth all of this. Wow.
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Hi guys! We would appreciate it if you reach our support team. This way, we will be able to see your purchases and will find a solution for you: https://skylum.com/support
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This is what I did because of the statement "Late Juli" and now I know, that I ordered AI two days too early and the support has no cullance window.
Thanks Mike, Markus, Sascha for your support.
Hope Skylum think about your comments and will change something in my account, but otherwise AI is the last version I used from Skylum :-)
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