Sweeping Productivity Enhancements and New Creative Innovations Boost End-to-End Workflows for Audio and Video Professionals

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 11, 2011 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 Production Premium, the complete software solution for video and post-production that helps deliver content to virtually any screen. Breakthrough performance, workflow improvements, creative innovations, and powerful new audio editing capabilities build upon the huge customer momentum Production Premium is experiencing with broadcasters, filmmakers and video professionals worldwide. New versions receiving major updates include Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects® CS5.5, Adobe Flash® Professional CS5.5, Adobe Flash Catalyst® CS5.5, Adobe Story, Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5, and Adobe Device Central CS5.5. New to Creative Suite 5.5 is Adobe Audition® CS5.5, bringing its audio-for-video multitrack editing environment to both Mac OS and Windows® for the first time.

Today also sees Adobe debut an affordable and flexible subscription-based pricing plan, attractive to customers that want to get current and stay current on Creative Suite products, have project-based needs, or try the software for the first time. New Subscription Editions ensure customers with active subscriptions are always working with the most up-to-date versions of the software, without the upfront cost of full pricing. Now customers can use Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 for as little as US$85 per month.

“Over the past year, we’ve received a phenomenal response to Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Production Premium for its performance, new features and expanded integration with hardware and camera manufacturers that makes metadata, collaboration and distribution a seamless workflow for video professionals,” said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager for Professional Video, Adobe. “CS5.5 turbo-charges a product that has already taken the industry by storm and gives story-tellers new tools and features to continue to astonish audiences around the world.”

Even Greater Productivity
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium delivers massive productivity enhancements that enable video and audio professionals to dramatically accelerate their workflows. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, and allows users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback for more GPU-accelerated features, and work more smoothly at 4k and higher resolutions.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 boosts performance by providing a smoother editing workflow, enabled by new trimming and editing tools that provide more precision and control. Dual-system sound support from the new Merge Clips command in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 lets users quickly sync video with high-quality audio recorded on separate devices like location recorders, ideal for DSLR or RED workflows. Leveraging an integrated workflow with Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere Pro users can save time by sending individual clips or sequences, including reference videos, directly to Adobe Audition for audio editing and restoration. Adobe’s lead in file-based workflows widens in CS5.5 with enhanced support for RED and other tapeless cameras, including improved RED Source Settings dialog in Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 and native support for up to 5k media from RED Epic cameras via an extension available on Adobe Labs. Providing a truly native editing solution, CS5.5 saves users time and eliminates the need to transcode or rewrap footage.

Building on Creative Suite Production Premium’s industry-leading multiscreen capabilities, the new 64-bit Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 has been completely redesigned to deliver Adobe Premiere Pro video sequences, After Effects compositions, and Adobe Encore® projects to multiple screen formats quickly, while doing the encoding in the background. Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 also introduces new format support such as AVC-Intra and DPX, and watch folders so users can encode a single clip to multiple destinations with a simple drag and drop.

“When you watch a film, it’s the larger experience that sticks with you, the combination of elements, not the individual details,” said Gareth Edwards, award winning filmmaker and the creative driving force behind the much-heralded 2010 independent film, Monsters. “That’s what I love about Adobe Creative Suite – all of the individual tools interlink seamlessly and blur the line between each part of the process so the focus is creating a cohesive work, not a bunch of different pieces. This interconnectivity coupled with the incredible speed of the Mercury Playback Engine makes for a powerful combination – if we had CS5.5 when we made Monsters, I know we would have finished two months earlier.”

Game-Changing Innovations
New innovations across the suite continue to help audio and video professionals push the boundaries of their creativity. After Effects CS5.5 introduces new features such as the Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur and Light Falloff to enable users to enhance footage in post-production. The breakthrough Warp Stabilizer eliminates unwanted camera movement by steadying shaky footage, making handheld footage appear as smooth as a camera mounted on a mechanical stabilizer. The Camera Lens Blur effect mimics the properties of physical lenses offering more realistic depth of field blurs. The Light Falloff effect enables users to simulate natural illumination falloff to mimic how light behaves in a 3D scene and can be used to create other light intensity effects.

Already well-adopted in the audio industry, video professionals can now harness the power of Adobe Audition in CS5.5 Production Premium – for both Mac and Windows platforms. The completely re-written audio engine in Audition offers a robust toolset to record, edit, mix, master, and sweeten audio. With its professional editing and multitrack mixing tools, powerful noise-reduction and effects options, audio and video professionals on both platforms can now benefit from Adobe Audition CS5.5 for handling a wide range of tasks quickly and efficiently.

Improved Collaboration
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium continues to drive innovation by enhancing how users collaborate with existing workflows, even if they use a variety of tools. Enhanced project exchange support for Final Cut Pro users provides maximum flexibility for video editors, while new or enhanced OMF support in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition makes it possible to export high-quality audio projects to Avid Pro Tools, facilitating more efficient collaboration between audio editors, remixers and sound designers.

Access to the new version of Adobe Story, an Adobe CS Live online service*†, improves collaboration between users with email notifications of new script edits and a faster method of tracking changes through script elements and filters. The ability to import Adobe Story script data directly into Adobe Premiere Pro further strengthens XML-based metadata support found throughout the Production Premium suite, which is critical for everything from file-based workflows to media asset management. This industry leadership around metadata-driven workflows, plus the ease and flexibility of communicating with Adobe applications with critical third party solutions from news management systems to playback servers, is the catalyst behind many broadcasters and other organizations around the world switching to Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium is scheduled to ship within 30 days with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium is expected to be US$1,699. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

By subscribing to Creative Suite, customers can choose a one-year subscription plan for lower payments or a month-to-month subscription for greater flexibility. For more information about Subscription Editions, visit: Subscription editions (http://www.adobe.com/go/cssubscription).

Pricing for the new Subscription Edition starts as low as US$39 per month for Adobe Premiere Pro and US$85 per month for Production Premium.

Education pricing for students, faculty and staff in K-12 and higher education is available from Adobe Authorized Education Resellers and the Adobe Education Store at www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.htm. More information regarding education volume licensing for higher education and K-12 institutions can be viewed at educational software discounts | Adobe Volume Licensing (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/volumelicensing/education).

For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing and International versions, please visit Video production editing | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium (http://www.adobe.com/go/creativesuiteproduction).

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit Adobe (http://www.adobe.com).

Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201104/041111AdobeCS5.5ProductionPremium.html)


What's new in CS5.5:
Design Tools | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/features._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_features%2Bby%2Bversion_sl_new%2Bsince%2Bcs5.html)

FAQ:
FAQ | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/faq.html)

Things I like:
- Warp Stabillizer in After Affects
- Audition replaces Soundbooth
- Subtle changes to Premiere Pro
- Media Encoder enhancements
- Audio sync (like PluralEyes does) in Premiere Pro

Interestingly, they now offer monthly/yearly subscription plans if you only need the software temporally.

I have a few quick questions. I didn't read this whole article, but I've gone over a few others that were specific to PPro and AE, so I hope I'm not asking questions that were covered above.

1. What about Encore? Other than the ability to author blu-rays, I haven't noticed many changes in Encore in the last few versions. Are there any 5.5 upgrades planned, or do we keep our fingers crossed for CS6?

2. As far as I can tell, the CS5.5 versions can only be obtained by purchasing one of the suites. Photoshop and InDesign are the only ones that can be bought seperatly. (at least that's what I gleam from the Adobe site) What if I can wait to get Production Premium CS6, but really want the new After Effects CS5.5 features now?

3. (not really a CS5.5 question) What's the difference between Soundbooth and Audion? I thought Audition was more like a free version of Soundbooth with less features, and I have only ever used Soundbooth because that is what came in the suite. But I hear about more people using Audition, and now it's replacing Soundbooth in the suites. Why?

Thanks! :)

3. (not really a CS5.5 question) What's the difference between Soundbooth and Audion? I thought Audition was more like a free version of Soundbooth with less features, and I have only ever used Soundbooth because that is what came in the suite. But I hear about more people using Audition, and now it's replacing Soundbooth in the suites. Why?

Thanks! :)

You must be mistaking Audition for Audacity. These are two completely different programs.

Audition is much better software than Soundbooth, and was present in previous bundled versions. It gives you more control over what you do, and has many more options. I for one am glad that they finally realized that Soundbooth was kind of fluke, and I'm happy to see Audition back in the bundle.

I just got CS5 a few months ago, I'm not about to upgrade again. At my pace, going from CS2 to CS5... I'll have to wait for CS8 before I upgrade again.

On the Audition vs Soundbooth: I still use audition CS2 and it works great for multi track recording.

Theres only a couple things I was looking for id like to see better performance espcially when editing AVCHD files. My system is kinda clunky with thlat but I have a low end i-7 it would be cool if they used the MPE to also help playback AVCHD files. The other thing I would have liked to see is the CUDA engine added to Encore too not just Premiere. I dont think it is now.

Here's the first hands-on Production Premium CS5.5 review, which I wrote for EventDV Magazine:
EventDV.net: The Event Videographer's Resource (http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/Benchmarking-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CS5-70277.htm)

Hmmm... looks like CS5 review to me, not CS5.5

I think he meant it to be:

Review: Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium (http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/Review-Adobe-CS5.5-Production-Premium-74852.htm)

- Rick

Here's the first hands-on Production Premium CS5.5 review, which I wrote for EventDV Magazine:

Nice review Shawn. All in all 5.5 looks like it may be worth the $399 upgrade for Prduction Permium.

Warp Stabilizer looks like it may compete well with Deshaker, plus it runs in AE and should be more user friendly and integrated - I'm looking forward to this. Do you know if it lets you compensate for different amounts of rolling shutter?

One thing I noticed that I hadn't seen before is the offering it on a subscription basis, month to month or annual. During the last couple of months I almost bit on the upgrade deals Adobe had been offering. Now had I done that, I'd be really pissed !!!

I had just bought CS5 last week. When I saw the announcement I thought "Oh crap!" I figured that Adobe would off the free upgrade, but expected to have to dig on the web site and spend 2 hours on hold....As soon as I read teh announcement I clikced into my email and there was an email already waiting from Adobe with instructions on how to request the upgrade. I am impressed with Adobe Customer Service!

Hi John,

Unfortunately you've bought before the announcement and thus no complimentary upgrade for you. I feel for you. Guess they need to draw the line somewhere, though.

One very impressive thing about the CS5.5 suite is that you can take all your audio clips straight to Audition and do your audio work there, with the results coming back in to Premiere as a "flattened" single item on the audio timeline. Very very impressive.

Take a look: Adobe Technology Sneaks 2011 - Sneak-Preview of Adobe Audition | Adobe TV (http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-technology-sneaks-2011/sneakpreview-of-adobe-audition/)

Andrew

As a participant in Adobe's "Ambassador" program, I was offered pre-release access to the Master Suite yesterday. After spending most of the day yesterday downloading the install, I'm today playing around with PPro and AE updates.

Firstly, I simply had to try the Warp Stabilizer effect on some of my otherwise-unusable DSLR footage, and, at first blush, am quite impressed. Here's a real-world, side-by-side example of the plug-in in action:
YouTube - After Effects CS5.5 Warp Stabilizer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Okw0Pfk5A)

What is truly amazing is that you've got your downloadables before the trial versions are even available. (As for me, I'm on volume licensing - with upgrade subscription - in Australia and still no updates.) Count yourself blessed!

This is software that is so awesome it should almost come with a complimentary "drool try". :-)

Andrew

Andrew, I indeed do feel blessed. That's why I felt it was incumbent on me to test out some of the new features and get the word out about them. #AdobeAE just re-tweeted my Warp Stabilizer video, so hopefully they're getting something out of the investment.

What's truly amazing with CS5 and now CS5.5 is that I can natively edit and realtime preview DSLR video on a 4 year- old Q6600 processor. I bought a GTX470 when I upgraded to CS5, but that's it. This had made me a "fanboy" of Adobe's for quite some time.

Now that the 2nd generation of the i7 core is out, I'll simply HAVE to upgrade this year.

You know, Brian, if you feel for any reason that you can't handle the new awesomeness then I'm here to help. I'm right behind you, man! :-P

Andrew

I have a few quick questions. I didn't read this whole article, but I've gone over a few others that were specific to PPro and AE, so I hope I'm not asking questions that were covered above.

1. What about Encore? Other than the ability to author blu-rays, I haven't noticed many changes in Encore in the last few versions. Are there any 5.5 upgrades planned, or do we keep our fingers crossed for CS6?

2. As far as I can tell, the CS5.5 versions can only be obtained by purchasing one of the suites. Photoshop and InDesign are the only ones that can be bought seperatly. (at least that's what I gleam from the Adobe site) What if I can wait to get Production Premium CS6, but really want the new After Effects CS5.5 features now?

Thanks! :)



1. No upgrades to Encore for 5.5

2. Premiere and After Effects can both be upgraded individualy. If you are coming from CS5 the cost is $179 for each respective program.

Ben

You can also start renting the software for a time period as well (ie rent for a month for a special project). This might help if you have a special project needing that killer feature they added.

Andrew

What is the upgrade cost coming from Master Collection CS5?

Hi John,

Unfortunately you've bought before the announcement and thus no complimentary upgrade for you. I feel for you. Guess they need to draw the line somewhere, though.

One very impressive thing about the CS5.5 suite is that you can take all your audio clips straight to Audition and do your audio work there, with the results coming back in to Premiere as a "flattened" single item on the audio timeline. Very very impressive.

Take a look: Adobe Technology Sneaks 2011 - Sneak-Preview of Adobe Audition | Adobe TV (http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-technology-sneaks-2011/sneakpreview-of-adobe-audition/)

Andrew

Sorry if I wasn't clear -- I am impressed in that Adobe proactively offered me the upgrade for free and did not require me to ask for it.

Ahh, even better. Adobe really are a pretty good company.

Andrew

FWIW, here's the info page on complimentary upgrades.

Upgrade eligibility after new product announcement (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/153/tn_15304.html?PID=2159997)

People who purchased just prior to the announcement can be eligible for a complimentary upgrade to CS5.5.

Andrew

Well, I guess I'm the only one thats going to throw the BS flag....

I normally upgrade my suites... but just now looking at what you don't get, I think I will pass on this one...

most of the programs in the suite stay at 5.0.. so no advantage there...

I like using Mercalli for stabilization... looks like it still has more control than the new one Adobe has.

and its not a cheap upgrade... looks to me they added support for iphone,ipad and stuff like that...
a speed up is nice but again, its not a cheap upgrade...

Think I'm passing on this one...

and it seems that Adobe has said that they will ugrade the packages each year.. so it sounds like they are going to upgrade half of the suite this year and charge you and then upgrade the other half of the suite next year, and charge you again... so that way they can maintain revenue streams all year long and your paying each year for incrementals to the suite....

as an example... if I upgrade to 5.5 this year, its $400 and then when they upgrade the other programs next year its going to be another $400... so my full suite upgrade for all programs is going to cost me $800... not to mention upgrading plug in costs so they work on newer versions of Adobe products...

Yeah, I was just doing the math too.
The big unknown will be what they will charge for CS6- will there be a differential between upgrading from CS5 vs from CS5.5?
I'm sure things will get a little more complicated going forward.

A couple of us at DVinfo had a very nice small group discussion with some senior Adobe reps at NAB. They did confirm very specifically that they are changing from a major release every 18 months to 2 years, with these less complete, incremental releases in the alternate years. Their rationale for this timing change is this:

Technology advances and changes unevenly. Not every app needs to be extensively rewritten every year, but we all clamor for certain things they CAN develop and release more quickly. And they want to do that. The new schedule allows them to more quickly provide significant updates like those we see in PPro and AE 5.5 that will definitel enhance the suite. (Personally, I can't tell you just HOW excited I am about seeing a new, completely rewritten, 64-bit Audition back in the suite, not to mention the enhance AE tools and expanded set of GPU-enabled effects).

As far as the pricing, of course we are all sensitive to how that will play out. I believe that the Adobe folks know customers won't stand for significant increases in price. It's not like nobody is going to notice, eh? Speculation on my part: the per-year cost will remain about the same. What did an 18-month upgrade from CS4 MC to CS5 MC cost? About $1200-1300. What is a 12 month 5.5 upgrade from 5 going to cost? It's $549. Even if the major release next year is a hundred or two more (hopefully not, but...well, we don't know, do we?), the annualized cost would still be LESS than it has been.

So given the currently available info and doing the math, there is no cause to raise the BS flag at this time.

Well Pete... thanks for the reply.. but upgrading from CS4 to CS5, was a heck of alot more than $1200 for me... heck, just my plug-ins alone cost more than $1200 to get them to play with the new CS5... and many many plug-ins still are not brought up to CS5 standards.. like Red Giant and many others... So now I have had to upgrade my workstations to Windows 7, new hard drives, more memory so I can upgrade to CS5 64bit. I'm not sure how you guys did it for $1200 but it sure wasn't for me... and yes, I did enjoy the benefits of moving from a CS4 to a 64bit platform CS5 but again
it cost me an arm and a leg... try telling your customers that you need to raise the price of your productions because your moveing hardware and software to 64bit... the customer don't care, they still get the same end product... I'm sure the Adobe boys think they have it all figured out but for some of us
the expense is killing the thrill of the game...

Let's please keep our discussions polite. I've removed some off-topic name calling about an old version.

The upgrade prices from CS4 to CS5 are a matter of record. If you spent a whole bunch of money on other stuff, that was your decision to make. It just isn't right to blame Adobe for those third party software costs, or if some other companies took a while to release plug ins that you use, nor to roll your new computer costs into the CS5 to 5.5 discussion. I can't vouch that this will definitely, always be true, but I'd think that the longer, two year life of a main release would generally also extend the life of most plug ins and help keep seat costs down for those who do use a lot of plug ins.

For me, the CS4 to CS5 era represented a huge jump in both hardware and software functionality.
It was definitely expensive, but I hardly blame it on Adobe.
Virtually everything moved ahead decisively at about the same time
XP/Vista 32 to Win7 64, Intel Quad to Intel i7, 4 GB RAM to 24GB, from DI editing to Native Formats, ordinary GPUs to CUDA + MPE.
I imagine it may be a while before we experience such a confluence of core changes again.
AND- since1920 HD is what I mostly edit, and these current systems and software finally do it like a dream, I do feel like I can just sit tight for quite a while now if I choose to :)

I feel the pain with upgrades too. In Australia I've just forked out $1430 to upgrade my Design Premium (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design.html) CS2 to the current CS5 version. And it was that much because my software had an Aussie serial number and thus the $800 upgrade in the USA store wouldn't have worked. Yea, I wasn't the happiest.

But in the big scheme of things it's excellent value compared to purchasing the software individually. It's also a minor thing compared to the income we derive from the editing work that we do.

Andrew

I'm with Robert on this... the step up from CS4 to CS5 was a quantum leap. Not just with the 64-bit, but the MPE. And I didn't ever have any major issues with CS4, other than how slow it was to deal with DSLR footage, transcode to Cineform, etc. CS5 was a clear game-changer. Same Day Edits (SDE's) are now the norm for me.

OTOH, after spending a few days with CS5.5, I can say that it's just an incremental upgrade. The Warp Stabilizer in AE is clearly the "big dog" here... but I try not to shoot bad footage in the first place. I have noticed quite a big change with MPE smoothness on playback with CS5.5, but I have a VERY old CPU (a Q6000 that's just limping along). I'm not sure if modern i5 or i7 core users would notice as much. Would I spend a few hundred on the upgrade, had Adobe not given me the suite? I'm not sure I would.

That said, it's good that people here are talking about the cost of the software now, especially since Apple fired a shot across Adobe and Avid's bows the other night with the new FCP retailing for $299. They're clearly trying to make inroads into the consumer market moving forward, and increase their market share in the software arena (which will then increase their hardware sales).

As a die-hard Adobe "fanboy", I had hoped that the dearth of FCP updates over the past year, and Adobe's aggressive marketing to the FCP disgruntled generally and DSLR shooters specifically, would help them regain some market share on the Apple platform that they lost when they temporarily decided to go PC-only with PPro 1.0 through CS3 (I believe). We'll have to see how this pans out with a new FCP on the horizon.

For those of us that make a living with our software, I think a few grand every few years is a pittance if we get the huge step up in performance and functionality that we got with CS5. As with our production gear, we'll have to keep upgrading our post hardware and software to stay competitive and on the front edge of the price/performance curve.

The Adobe suite gives me a bevy of post production tools from a single vendor that is unmatched in the industry. To go from NLE, to compositing, to DVD authoring without a single intermediate render is extremely powerful for the "time is money" argument. For that reason, I'm a very loyal, and very happy Adobe user.

The Adobe suite gives me a bevy of post production tools from a single vendor that is unmatched in the industry. To go from NLE, to compositing, to DVD authoring without a single intermediate render is extremely powerful for the "time is money" argument. For that reason, I'm a very loyal, and very happy Adobe user.
Huge point!
Adobe provides an entire ecosystem

As far as the pricing, of course we are all sensitive to how that will play out. I believe that the Adobe folks know customers won't stand for significant increases in price. It's not like nobody is going to notice, eh? Speculation on my part: the per-year cost will remain about the same. What did an 18-month upgrade from CS4 MC to CS5 MC cost? About $1200-1300. What is a 12 month 5.5 upgrade from 5 going to cost? It's $549. Even if the major release next year is a hundred or two more (hopefully not, but...well, we don't know, do we?), the annualized cost would still be LESS than it has been.

So given the currently available info and doing the math, there is no cause to raise the BS flag at this time.

It cost me 159,000 yen to upgrade from CS4 to CS5. Adobe wants 100,000 yen for an upgrade to a .5 release. For me, everything hinges on the upgrade price going to CS6. If they charge higher for it, then I will either upgrade less frequently, or seriously reconsider my dependence on Adobe software. Especially now that FCP is being priced so aggressively.

I have been an enthusiastic upgrader because I wanted to keep up to date with changes in the software (I have upgraded each time since CS3 on the mac) and liked seeing the workflow get easier and easier, but have never really been able to financially justify the outlay each time I upgrade. It is looking to me that what was an already expensive upgrade it going to get slightly more expensive, and that could price people like me out of the game.

On a positive note though, I am still using CS3 and Audition 2 at work and they still cover almost all of my needs.

Ignoring the wild cards of tarrifs and taxes, the 159,000 yen per 18 months would be annualized to 106,000 yen/year. So the two pricing models would break even if CS6 turns out to be priced at 112,000 yen, and anything less would be a lower annualized cost for regular upgraders.

Of course, if one doesn't need the features in a particular upgrade, skip it and wait until a subsequent upgrade, which depending on upgrade pricing may or may not save you money in the long run.

There's a few great things I like about the update reports for 5.5, but the notion that their monthly subscription is highly affordable I can't believe that. After 2 months you pretty much pay for the Production Premium upgrade cost alone!

In February we got the full Master Collection CS5 upgrade and that was not cheap, but the changes from CS4 to CS5 were VERY significant. The costs they're asking for minor upgrades (while a couple of them I would definitely get use from), the cost seems pretty darn high for those when you compare the costs to the suite upgrade costs from 4 to 5's specs.

If I upgrade to Production Premium 5.5 it will be full license and not subscription. That's an atrocious cost month-to-month.

I'm more cynical than most because I am affected in two ways by the Adobe upgrade cycle. Firstly, like everyone else, I am required to cough up for an upgrade that is sweetened by a few "deal breaker" changes but in the main the other changes are rubbish.

Secondly, unlike our friends in the US, we here in Australia (and most countries outside the US) pay a premium price for the identical product - for no reason other than we do not live in the US. Can those of you in the US imagine paying an extra 50% - 70% more for this software every time there is an upgrade, which is then downloaded from exactly the same server? What would this do to your cashflow and bottom line?

Adobe have quoted nonsensical arguments about supporting the distribution chain, cost of support and so on, but that just doesn't cut it with anyone. Support is done from India for everybody. A download is a download. There is absolutely no justification for such price gouging.

Over the past few years I have selectively killed off Adobe programs and switched to alternatives. The offensive is well advanced now and only Photoshop remains. It wasn't the actual software that did my head in, it was Adobe's price gouging policies for its (apparently not important) international customers.

Cheers

Russ

Actually, nobody is forcing you to upgrade to CS5.5. Your existing software will continue to work as advertised. At the end of the day you still get your work done.

Don't get me wrong, I know (ouch!) the pricing difference for Australia and I suspect that the "import duties" is quite small with the rest of the argument for the difference being made up by a retail profit margin for the Adobe reseller channel here in Australia. By all means purchase direct from the USA if you can — you'd be crazy not to.

Andrew

Hello Andrew,

There are no import duties payable on software and a 10% goods and services tax applies if the product is valued at more than $1000.00 AUD. But that is for the boxed product. If one is downloading, there is no tax to pay at the Australian end. The only problem is that Adobe have set up systems to detect and prevent non-US users from purchasing downloads from their US online store.

In essence they try, in this age of the Global Economy, to force you to buy the product from the shop in your home country (at their grossly inflated price). The only way around this is to buy through a friend or colleague in the US or set up a US account with Adobe, using a bogus address and telephone number. Even then you must pay by credit card because using Paypal alerts Adobe to your non-US address.

So they continue to milk their foreign customers and use us to cross-subsidise their US customers. No need to thank us!

Come to think of it, Australia and the US have a free-trade agreement and I think I will start making inquiries with our Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to see if Adobe are breaking any laws. Geez, it would be a laugh if they were contravening a Treaty and had to refund all of their Aussie customers.

Cheers

Russ

Believe me, I know about the extra cost and the special "Australian" serial numbers. I had to cough up $1430AUD instead of $800USD for a Design Premium upgrade because an Aussie serial number won't work for a US upgrade. For a few hundred dollars extra I could have just bought the thing outright on the US store.

"Not happy, Jan! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2akt3P8ltLM)" as we say over here.

Andrew