Adobe unveiled the latest major release of its Creative Suite product line, introducing many new features in the applications. The company also changed the release schedule for future major releases of the suite.
[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]Calling Creative Suite 5.5 a “mid-cycle product release,” Adobe said it focused on three main areas: Proliferation of Devices; Design and Interactivity; and Monetization.
“Our customers are faced with the opportunity to reach more customers through mobile devices than the desktop,” Dave Burkett, Vice President and General Manager, Adobe Creative Suite Design and Web Segments, told The Loop. “That’s a real game changer.”
To help designers meet their design goals, Adobe has introduced HTML5 advancements in Dreamweaver, new tablet and smartphone application development capabilities in Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder Premium 4.5, and enhanced cross-browser testing as well as mobile emulation and on-device debugging.
Dreamweaver CS 5.5 includes jQuery mobile framework integration for browser-based content and PhoneGap integration for native and mobile application design and development, according to Adobe.
The company also said that with Adobe Flash Builder 4.5, Flash Professional CS 5.5 and the introduction of the Flex 4.5 framework for mobile devices, developers could create apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android devices and BlackBerry PlayBook.
Applications for audio and video professionals got some big updates too. Updated apps include Premiere Pro CS5.5, After Effects CS5.5, Adobe Story, Media Encoder CS5.5, and Device Central CS5.5.
New to Creative Suite 5.5 is the addition of Adobe’s audio application, Audition.
In announcing this mid-cycle release, Adobe said it was changing the schedule for its major announcements. The company will go from an 18 month development cycle to a 24 month schedule, but will include mid-cycle releases in between.
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 will be available within 30 days. Pricing for the suite is $2599 for CS 5.5 Master Collection; $1899 CS 5.5 Design Premium; $1799 for CS 5.5 Web Premium; $1699 for CS 5.5 Production Premium; and $1299 for CS 5.5 Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.
Burkett added “We at Adobe see this as a remarkable opportunity to gouge our customers for yet another substantial amount of cash, well ahead of the normal 18-month churn. Struggling freelancers in particular will definitely want to consider keeping up with their corporate clients so as not to introduce file-type compatibility issues in their work.”
Considering it’s a point release you would think it would be an update pushed out not a new product. Ugh.
Also they’re going to have midcycle releases as well so really they’re going to a 12 month dev cycle with major revs every 24 months.
Makes life hard and costly, cost of doing business eh Moe?
I’m sure the HTML 5 tools are a concession that they were caught short by the speed with which it’s being adopted. The tablet/mobile tools are a realization that they did not see this shift coming. No doubt the iPad is a game-changer they didn’t anticipate after the failure of the Windows tablet over the past 11 plus years.
Still, their new cycle is odd. Considering for years and years they said the cycle was 18-24 months, so going to a standard 24 month cycle isn’t too surprising. But to charge this money for a mid-stream update is a bit much. It is $200 less than the standard update for the Design Premium Suite. But it still seems way too soon. And adding Acrobat X to it is hardly compelling. It should have been in the suite from the start. There’s no reason they have kept the Acrobat Pro cycle so different than the regular suite updates after many years, other than an opportunity to “monetize” as they said. Monetize our need for software from a company that nearly has a monopoly on pro creative software in design and web development. Thank goodness FinalCut Pro keeps them from having an even bigger lock.
I delay upgrading as long as possible, simply because enough of my freelance clients do. I’m hoping Adobe’s sales for this venal act of greed reflect that.
Lube still not included.
I think Adobe is going to be in a whole lot of hurt once they realize that people, particularly freelancers will just not upgrade. Watch Adobe start lowering prices in about 6 moths.
If only it was that simple. At some point, some company somewhere has to add a few seats to a production department, for which only new licenses would be available. That’s pretty much all it takes to push the need to upgrade for everyone who deals with them. I’d be very surprised if InDesign CS 5.5 saves down to even 5, much less version 4.
InDesign 5.5, now allowing you to render out giant dead PNG’s to bundle as a magazine, complete with non selectable text and little interactivity. Why download a 50mb magazine when you can download a 500mb one? Adobe: Going Backwards.
That’s ok Moe. Give Acorn and Pixelmator a few more years and most people “That includes a load of professionals” won’t need photoshop. As long as the other editors maintain the ability to open and save PSD files.
It’s Flash that always forces me to update. Damn limited backwards compatibility.
If I thought for a minute that those small-app developers were headed in that direction, I’d try to support them. I don’t think that’s their intention, though.
Yes. But they do 90 Percent of what I do in photoshop and I could use them now if they supported PSD Plug-ins.