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Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3) Pricing and Upgrades

Analog Kid said:
The people that get burned by this are the hobbyists. If you're not making money by using these apps, you really can't justify the price. That's one of the reasons I also find the package contents so offensive. There are a lot of people who would want Photoshop and the web tools but Adobe makes this really difficult and expensive.

Here's hoping that someone out there is realizing how much money could be made by competing in this space and comes in to keep Adobe honest.
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My thoughts exactly.

2 and a half years ago I was a semi-pro (I made about £200/year) and hobbyist graphic designer, but since switching I've had to give that up, due to lack of affordable software of a decent enough quality. Since Macs are "for creative stuff" and "what proper graphics artists use, I find the irony hard to bear.

SL
 
superleccy said:
In the non-existent chance that the UK pricing manager for Adobe is reading this, I'd like to remind them that the £:$ exchange rate is presently 1.9648. And no, you can't truncate the digits after the decimal point (although you probably will).

Anticipating another Adobe Brit-rip-off...

SL
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Look on the bright side, you guys only have 17.5% VAT ;)
 
From the NAPP website:
NAPP found out there’s been a little change in Adobe’s upgrade policy for Photoshop CS3 that will save you some money if you’re working with an older version of Photoshop (like 6.0) and plan to upgrade to CS3.

As of the release of Photoshop CS3, you’ll only be able to upgrade at the standard upgrade price if you have Photoshop 7, CS or CS2. So, if you’re still using Photoshop 6.0 or earlier, Scott Kelby, NAPP president recommends you “upgrade to Photoshop CS2 now (you'll pay something around $169), then you can buy the upgrade to CS3 when it comes out at the regular upgrade price, which will save you literally hundreds of dollars over having to the buy the full version once CS3 ships.”
 
dante@sisna.com said:
What Don't you Like about Dreamweaver?

It' code is basically clean now, not like older versions, and the interface is generally okay. Besides, for most web designers, the interface is meaningless as we write most of our own code.
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I suppose it's okay if you're doing mom-n-pop sites, but I've dealt with the mess that comes with corporate sites being built on Dreamweaver and I just have a terrible bias against that app. It just makes a mess of things. It doesn't scale well to large sites (from what I've seen) and only really deals with non-dynamic content well. The happiest day of my web coding life was the day I had completely taken our web dept. off DW and switched over to BBEdit.

It may have improved over the last few years, but I have no interest in it. I think a web developer ought to get their hands dirty in code and ought to learn how to manage the kinds of things DW tries to make easy.
 
devilot said:
Nope. Academic end-users must re-purchase the whole suite with each subsequent "upgrade."
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NOT TRUE - I purchased CS! Premium using an EDU discount and called Adobe to confirm when upgrading to CS2.

I was able to pay the CS2 Premium (Upgrade) price with no problems. Macromedia on the other hand is a different story,
 
differing upgrade pricing

Anyone have a clue why the Master Collection upgrade versions with asterisks are priced $600 lower? I'd upgrade to Master Collection for $1,399.00 but I can't see myself doing this for $1,999.00.

I have CS Premium 2.3 now and I haven't a clue what the upgrade to Design Premium will actually cost, though I would extrapolate that it will be $999.95.

Is it just me or did Adobe just jump the shark?
 
Some issues

I wonder how draconian Adobe is likely to be with upgrades? When you upgrade from CS2 to CS3, does the CS2 computer need to be already activated? Does using the CS2 code to activate an upgrade to CS3 render the CS2 license unusable? They can easily put the screws to the marketplace too much and encourage piracy even by valid customers.

A warning to people considering upgrading to those fancy newfangled versions: Adobe has historically refused to let you then upgrade to anything but that version in the future. So you can't ever, say, "upgrade" to CS4 standard version if you bought the super CS3 version, only the same version. Hence, everyone should really consider what kind of buyer's remorse they might feel in the future and consider opting for individual programs.

No more Golive? That sucks -- unless it's a totally different program from when I used it last, I'd use Claris Home Page 3.0 in Classic mode before I used DW, if I could. I fail to see how Adobe and Macromedia joining is a Good Thing if it means that two important programs that competed with each other nicely now melt into one competition-free program that is virtually unopposed in the marketplace. Since GoLive CS2 was the most crash-tastic program I've ever used in OS X, I'll stick with GoLive CS until I see how things shake out. Maybe they'll release it as a stand-alone product.
 
I think the upgrade prices look pretty decent. :)

I have the rather old and creaking Macromedia MX Studio, and can update to Web Premium for $500. That gives me serious updates to 4 applications (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Contribute) and 2 brand new ones (Photoshop Extended, Illustrator). Very happy with this. :)

I'm taking a trip Stateside soon, so this is perfect timing to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate. :)
 
Man that all sounds expensive. I might be forced to use Fireworks instead of Photoshop. I've never used it before so have no idea what the limitations will be.
 

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So... Uhhh... Wha? Okay. I'm a bit confused. I have Photoshop CS2 Full, Illustrator CS2 Full, and Studio 8 Academic. Everything in the Web Premium Package except Acrobat. Am I paying $499 or $1399 for the upgrade. Or should I say, am I buying the upgrade or not buying the upgrade?
 
looks like I'll be putting $1800 (+tax :( ) on the old credit card. This will be the first huge retail software bundle I've purchased. In the past I've just bought academic versions. Which has been fine, and I could do again, but I graduate on June 1st and I guess its time to start paying the big boy prices since I'm making money off of it. *sigh*
 
I agree with Analog Kid, hobbyists are going to suffer. Those who make casual purchases are certainly going to think twice about buying these apps.

I understand a lot of dev has probably gone into these builds, but with so many alternatives, many of which are OpenSource and free (GIMP when it has CYMK, many many WYSIWYG HTML editors), Adobe might burn itself.
 
Looks like I will be sticking with my exisiting setup. Those prices are a joke.

I dont consider the latest functions or UB to be a must have feature to be honest, despite having an intel machine.

I agree with someone else's post above. These products are worth £150 each or £300 for the full suite. Nothing more.

People who are simply 'getting their credit card' have more money than sense, and should consider whether the benefits are really worth it.

Vote with your wallet and tell Adobe to get stuffed.
 
tveric said:
Anyone else notice that Amazon shows the CS3 suites as only available for Windows? They're all available for pre-order...

There's a Mac version of Photoshop CS3 listed but that's not even in the pre-order stage; just says "we'll email you when it's available". Odd.
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Yah, I saw that. Confusing. Maybe Amazon *didn't* jump the gun on the Mac version because they didn't want to p' off the Apple-peeps.
 
superleccy said:
In the non-existent chance that the UK pricing manager for Adobe is reading this, I'd like to remind them that the £:$ exchange rate is presently 1.9648. And no, you can't truncate the digits after the decimal point (although you probably will).

Anticipating another adobe Brit-rip-off...

SL
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Anticipating another AMERICAN SOFTWARE Brit-rip-off...
 
When I get my Mac Pro (obviously Intel), can I install Photoshop CS2 (PPC) and buy an upgrade version of Photoshop CS3 (Intel) and expect it to work natively?
 
Hmmmm, I have a windows version of photoshop 5.0, still shrinkwrapped... I don't know how the upgrades work, whether its a full install, just use the old serial, or what... Basically, I'd love to try going the 'upgrade to CS2' route and getting a better deal on CS3... But I have my doubts I can make the move to the Mac version...

Anyone have any idea about this?
 
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