Adobe Creative Suite 6 Now Available, Creative Cloud to Follow on May 11

$1299 and $2599?! Just trying to get Photoshop is also expensive on its own. Oh well, Adobe brought this on their own....

A friend of mine just forked out $1000+ for InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Decided it was time to 'get on the upgrade path' with Adobe: spend now to get upgrade pricing later. He bought late enough he'll be getting CS6 upgrades for free, so he's happy.

I asked him why he didn't go for Creative Cloud, and he said he wanted to 'own' his software and update when it suited him. I get it. In work I use CS5 but at home I have my own, fully legal, copy of CS3. There is nothing new in CS5 I need so I stick with CS3 at home, and most likely will do until a version of OS X comes along that breaks CS3. However, I'm on that upgrade path.

(Let me be clear here and say I'm referring to Design Premium in this post. I don't have any knowledge on the video side of things)

Adobe have a couple of battles on their hands:

[LIST=1]
* The Necessity to Upgrade
Unless you use Photoshop or Illustrator, the two flagship products, or maybe InDesign, you probably don't need a new version except for compatibility with other users. The updates are checklists of features dreamed up by marketing that make no difference to most people day to day. Maybe from CS2 to CS6, you'd see a big difference, but otherwise? Meh.
For non-print designers, Adobe's software is rapidly becoming replaceable: I'm a web designer and I haven't used Dreamweaver in years. Between Espresso, Coda, TextMate or whatever HTML editor you use, there's not much reason to. I switched to skEdit 3 years ago and haven't looked back; I just completed a 12-month long site build and never dropped into Flash once; Sketch 2 from Bohemian Coding looks to be on the cusp of being a great Fireworks replacement; since I don't particularly use Photoshop, something like Pixelmator might well suffice for me.
In short, most people don't need Adobe products at every release
* Leapfroggers
Even those who do keep up to date don't buy every version. Most design studios I've worked at leapfrog: CS1, then 3, then 5. They just won't put out $900 per seat every 18 months. So adobe introduced the .5 release: rather than CS4, then CS5 18 months later, they decided to have a .5 release every 12 months, giving 2 years between full versions. Then they broke compatibility to force upgrades: a group of users at my current workplace received InDesign CS5 but six months later, a new batch were added and they received 5.5. Apparently to normal 5 was no longer available. That wouldn't be a problem if InDesign CS5 could receive copy from InCopy CS5.5, but they're incompatible, so everybody with InDesign CS5 now has to be upgraded.


It seems Creative Cloud solves both these problems: at $30 a month, even if you don't need the latest version, why not get it and benefit from things like bug fixes, which Adobe prefers to roll into their version upgrades, rather than fixing the one you paid them for? The same goes for leapfroggers: everybody can be on the latest version at all time so no more incompatibility! Also, Adobe get a guaranteed $600 income per seat, so their financials are more predictable now people aren't leapfrogging or buying when they're forced to!

So we all win, right? Maybe not.

That upgrade path may well be going away. In this article at John Nack's site (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2012/04/adobe-creative-cloud-nicely-encapsulated.html), he quotes an article on Creative Cloud:

You’re always entitled to the newest version of all the programs, and Adobe says that it’s going to start rolling out features continuously rather than waiting for sweeping upgrades every couple of years.

Sound interesting? There are two possible outcomes here:

[LIST=1]
* There will be no upgrades to upgrade to after CS6. Unless you're on Creative Cloud, you are stuck with it as it is right now, bugs and all.
* If updates are continuous, maybe they humour you a few years longer by taking, say, the previous 18 months' updates, calling them CS7 and taking $900 off you.


Maybe they'll make CS7, but my guess is we're 2 years away from Creative Cloud being the only choice. Maybe my friend's 'upgrade path' is simply a way for him to 'own' the final, boxed release of the software he needs, and then he'll wind up paying for a subscription anyway.

I guess what I'm saying here is think carefully about Creative Cloud and how you buy into CS6. It may well determine the choices we have available to us in 18 months time.

Me? I'll keep using FW CS3 till Sketch can replace it, and boot up PS CS3 as I need it, maybe even buy Pixelmator since I don't do CMYK. InDesign CS3 will be fine for the odd page layout I do these days. For a second, the low price of Creative Cloud looked really enticing, then I remembered exactly how much of the Creative Suite actually use these days :D

Did you hear these turkeys on MacWorld podcast congratulating themselves that STUDENTS only have to pay $39 per month for their software?

Now we know, all the design students are going to have to become strippers just to pay for their software.

Uhm... students will blow more than $39 on one night of drinking and partying. And they do it a lot more than once per month.

Uhm... students will blow more than $39 on one night of drinking and partying. And they do it a lot more than once per month.

I WISH I could spend over $100 a month on going out alone (since you're insinuating it's $39 a few times). That's over $800 a year aside from food costs, general living costs, school, ect.

$40 per student per month is very costly.

Pixelmator does everything Photoshop does any more for more than half of the price of Photoshop.

Sorry Adobe... take your bloatware and go away.

Uhm... students will blow more than $39 on one night of drinking and partying. And they do it a lot more than once per month.

Wrong. You watch too many movies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mac Maniac View Post
It's time for adobe to reduce their prices and get their stuff in the Mac App Store.

Why should they deal with Apple's fees? They sell quite a lot directly. They sell on places like Amazon too, but the concern is most likely that it'll end in a net loss in profits or control if they let Apple dictate the terms of sale. Anyway for everyone who wishes it was cheaper, their costs would most likely be lowest with payments processed through Adobe and downloaded there, seeing as Adobe will be hosting these files anyway.

I am glad large universal software companies like Adobe are keeping their purchases out of the Mac App store. We need big players like them to remain on the outside so Apple doesn't assume it can close the ecosystem even more. Apple are starting to act totalitarian and separatist, getting to be almost as bad as microsoft in the heyday. I want key players to resist. I'm very unsure about wanting to kowtow to Apple for the rest of my computing career.

Can't wait for someone come in and take all the business away from Adobe. Please anyone.

Adobe's improvements are small, the updated prices are stupid high. Time from us to stop using their upgrades.

If Pixelmator was built for professionals and had ALL the features of Photoshop... it wouldn't be $30 anymore. Just remember that.

But be glad Pixelmator exists... or Photoshop Elements... or even GIMP. Those are good solutions for some people... but not for others.

Side note: After reading some of the comments in this thread... where did people get this sense of entitlement?

Photoshop has been $700 for a decade or more. Pay up or shut up! :D

There are plenty of choices:

$700 - Adobe Photoshop CS6
$100 - Adobe Photoshop Elements
$30 - Pixelmator
Free - GIMP

Choose one and be happy.

I WISH I could spend over $100 a month on going out alone (since you're insinuating it's $39 a few times). That's over $800 a year aside from food costs, general living costs, school, ect.

$40 per student per month is very costly.

No it's not . . . . college students need to realize that not everything is FREE! Take it from a former one, and one that teaches at one now. You spend $2000+ on the Macbook Pro and more on books and so forth and so on. You have to make a choice and budget correctly . . . . you know . . . grow up.

Seriously not trying to be a smart-butt. I used to pirate software myself, but then I grew up and realized how pathetic it really is.

Can't wait for someone come in and take all the business away from Adobe. Please anyone.

Adobe's improvements are small, the updated prices are stupid high. Time from us to stop using their upgrades.

Adobe has been putting out some serious updates lately. I am on CS4 and have been using CS5.5 at my job and notice a good deal of improvements on the video apps end. CS6 adds a good deal more under the hood improvements, especially some that allow users of lower powered systems (MBPs and iMacs) to get things done faster.

Basically, they see the trend. How everyone is moving from big iron systems like the MacPro down to iMacs and 17" MBPs.

A friend of mine just forked out $1000+ for InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Decided it was time to 'get on the upgrade path' with Adobe: spend now to get upgrade pricing later. He bought late enough he'll be getting CS6 upgrades for free, so he's happy.

I asked him why he didn't go for Creative Cloud, and he said he wanted to 'own' his software and update when it suited him. I get it. In work I use CS5 but at home I have my own, fully legal, copy of CS3. There is nothing new in CS5 I need so I stick with CS3 at home, and most likely will do until a version of OS X comes along that breaks CS3. However, I'm on that upgrade path.

(Let me be clear here and say I'm referring to Design Premium in this post. I don't have any knowledge on the video side of things)
...
Me? I'll keep using FW CS3 till Sketch can replace it, and boot up PS CS3 as I need it, maybe even buy Pixelmator since I don't do CMYK. InDesign CS3 will be fine for the odd page layout I do these days. For a second, the low price of Creative Cloud looked really enticing, then I remembered exactly how much of the Creative Suite actually use these days :D

Very good post and it brings to light that not everyone needs the hammer that is CS. I had a boss that bought the Master Collection and couldn't touch over 3/4 of the apps. He was genius, but not a creative one. He wasted his cash.

The question is will the new C6 products allow users to actually select what gets installed? I recall with Photoshop CS5 that if you selected only the Photoshop core component that it would still install Adobe Air, Bridge and some other items. The icing on the cake was that it would then also install Growl.

This led me to trashing Adobe products completely from my OS X install and instead using it in a VM dedicated for Photoshop/Illustrator related work.

I've never had to do this, and certain apps like Bridge and Air are essential and built heavily into PS. Bridge at one point was just a feature of PS before it became a stand alone application. Air is probably for reading the instructions or for the "tip of the day." I've never had to install Growl. Not at all and I've been putting CS on systems since the first CS came to market.

.... and I sill wouldn't pay that much.

Then I seriously doubt you need it. I would NEVER pay $4000 for AutoCad . . . the great part is that I don't have to because I don't need it. People that pirate software because they are too cheap or too immature to pay for it are an enigma to me.

People will pay for everything else, including whatever vice they have, but wouldn't even shell out a penny for a piece of high end software. Would rather steal something they don't need. As for the Cloud, I seem to recall people paying more for their cell phones.

It's like people don't want to pay for Adobe software because it's the standard, they think they need it, and it should be given out for free, or should be $399 for the Master Collection. Cloud makes it easy to get all of the apps without having to shell out $800-$2599 and now it's ludicrous . . . even though an iPhone on AT&T is $129 per month base.

The only people that have a real complaint are people in the UK . . . $4000 for the master collection is robbery.

MOD NOTE: This is not the thread for general discussion of copyright violation. If you wish to discuss that, please do it in an appropriate thread.

B