Adobe Introduces Creative Suite 5.5, Subscription Editions - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Adobe Introduces Creative Suite 5.5, Subscription Editions

012916 adobe

Adobe has introduced Creative Suite 5.5 with substantial upgrades to InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Also included is a new SDK for Photoshop CS5. This release is new strategy for Adobe which targets mid-cycle releases every 12 months and major releases every 24 months.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the new Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 product line (see separate releases), enabling designers and developers to target popular and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms, as the revolution in mobile communications fundamentally changes the way content is distributed and consumed. Substantive advances to HTML5, Flash authoring, digital publishing and video tools as well as new capabilities that kick-start the integration of tablets into creative workflows, anchor the new Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 product family.

Alongside Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe has also introduced a subscription model for companies who wish to stay up to date with Creative Suite releases. For example, Adobe Photoshop can be used for $35/month, Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 for US$95 per month, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection for US$129 per month. MobileBeat explains further:

For one thing, as an alternative to the traditionally-priced version of Creative Suite, Adobe customers can now purchase CS5.5 through a subscription model. Those subscriptions arent exactly cheap (Photoshop costs $35 per month, while the full suite costs $129 per month), and this isnt a full-on embrace of the online software model either. Subscription customers still buy the software in a box they just pay for the license one month at a time.

Dave Burkett, vice president and general manager of Adobe Creative Suite, explains that many freelancers coming on and off a project would enjoy the flexibility a month to month plan offers. Macworld details the different pricing options which include discounts for year-long commitments.

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 will begin shipping in the next 30 days. A full listing of new features are detailed on Adobe's website.

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...

Top Rated Comments

chaosbunny Avatar
195 months ago
All this moral discussion about stealing a 1500,- bucks suite of software is pretty ridiculous if you put it into a relation to the billions of dollars/euros stolen from our tax money by the private central banks.

If a corporation steals billions that's ok, but if someone pirates a single piece of software that's theft.

The same rules should apply to everyone.

Btw, I have only legit software on my computer.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BlueRevolution Avatar
195 months ago
So, the way it is now, you buy Photoshop for around $650 and after 18 months you can upgrade for $190. Total: $840 for 36 months, plus you still have your software to use for as long as you want if you choose not to upgrade anymore...

So, $35 x 36 months = $1260 and after the 36 months finnish, you have nothing... :confused:

I don't see a big advantage here, unless you only use photoshop in a few projects a year... I don't know anyone who does that, tho...

The big advantage here isn't for you. ;)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
195 months ago
If you run a business, like I do, then you would actually appreciate what they've done. To hire a new designer involves having enough work in the first place, which costs money. You then need to pay recruitment fees (anything from £500 - £5k depending who you use), buy them a new Mac (around £1500+ for a decent iMac), load it with software (around £2k) and then hope the candidate is as good as they interviewed. You're taking all of the risk and hoping that the work continues regularly enough to cover their salary and all of the expenses you just paid out on, when in SMEs it can vanish as quickly as it arrived. So after spending maybe as much as £8k before the member of staff has even started and you've bought their software, to be able to pay £85/m for the software instead of £1700 in one hit is a much needed relief.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)