Comments on: Who builds Photoshop, and the frequency of updates

By: Joseph Mina

Joseph Mina — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:27:02 +0000

It’s the small things that make software great. Somewhat disappointed with the “small things” of the Mac CS3 Design Suite.
For example, mouse scrolling does not work in the palettes. Dreamweaver is much less intuitive than Go Live. Version Cue is a joke. For the amount of $$$ charged, I expect a lot better from Adobe. Not sure what it takes to “get it right”, however, the present level of customer support rates right down there with the Airlines.

By: Wolfgang Löer

Wolfgang Löer — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:58:19 +0000

i agree with Joe Color and others about the ridiculous non us-pricing!
i would understand, if the adobe-prices here were a moderate percentage higher that in the us, like with most $-related stuff. but here in germany any adobe software costs about double the us-price (even english version isnt much cheaper).
due to this i skipped cs3 (design/web-suite), although i am a professional designer.
and unless the pricing changes (or i find a decent import-solution) i plan to stick to my 36-48 month schedule.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:13:16 +0000

Re release cycles, the feedback I get from my clients (mid-size design/agency/publishers) is that they believe the 18-24 mo. cycle is there to generate shareholder-friendly, periodic revenues for Adobe, and only secondarily for the benefit of Adobe software users. FWIW.
Also, they particularly resent current versions of the software being taken off the shelves the day new versions are released. They struggle with equipping new hires/new acquisitions with the same versions of software that everyone else in the company is using. So, it’s not just that Adobe comes out with new Suite versions every 1.5-2 years, but they feel forced to move. They have no choice. (It’s not such a big deal with Photoshop, where a TIFF is a TIFF regardless of version, but with InDesign it most definitely is an issue.)
As a trainer/consultant with long-term support contracts with my clients, I usually get the brunt of their frustration. ;-)

By: gav

gav — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:37:51 +0000

I guess the thing about updates is what the change is and how is that going to effect your workflow.
A CS upgrade for me brings to mind more integration, more inter-linking between programmes and alterations to UI and alterations to what feature sets there are. So something major that is going to alter my workflow, enhance what how I do things and take some time to learn.
Adding support to new cameras in CS3 and CS2 should be standard as that doesn’t require a major redesign or over hall. The same should be said of things that “fix” things that are obviously wrong like the point upgrades in Lightroom and the need of Indesign to be more stable in Leopard.
But should I expect Adobe to support my new camera when it didn’t have the support originally? No but it would be nice like getting AVCD (Sony’s codec?) support in Premier Pro.
So I guess I won’t big things in big updates and improvement s and little adjustment by smaller point ones.
gav.

By: Bill Dodwell

Bill Dodwell — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:24:33 +0000

John
I’m not sure my original comment was clear. I share the concern of Alessandro – the changes to digital cameras and the fact that Adobe doesn’t support new cameras on old products makes Lightroom and PhotoShop extremely expensive. I don’t think we’re asking for extra features – just the ability to ‘read’ RAW files from newer cameras. Surely the File Format Plugin is a relatively simple piece of work that is being done anyway? I still think you’d have happier customers if you offered updates to deal with cameras for the current and previous versions without offering extra functionality to Camera Raw.

By: Joe Color

Joe Color — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:32:59 +0000

The thing is I wouldn’t even want a german version and I’d prefer digital download over a box. So in principle I’m Adobe’s dream foreign customer, no translation costs, no packaging, no shipping, just a bit of tax. So why do I have to pay twice as much?
Is there anything that would legaly keep me from having a friend in the US buy it for me there and send it over?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:33:45 +0000

I’m sort of in the same situation as Alessandro Rosa above. I use CS2 all the time for my own photography. Even went to a week long workshop to learn more….but I don’t envision upgrading until I upgrade my computer and my camera. It may be a while for a new camera, and I’d really like my next computer to be 64 bit linux.

By: Iain Gunther

Iain Gunther — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:26:07 +0000

More on the pricing issue.In France before tax PS CS3 is the today equivalent of $1389 and in Switzerland the French version is the equivalent of $1081 before tax. In England before tax it is the equivalent of $942 and in the US it is only $650. I can understand that if you have to translate all the interfaces there could be a justification on your side for charging for that, but when the version are identical then only the tax should make a difference. Why not price all the products in US dollars plus a bit for the freight and then it will be all equal (and probably slow down the piratage as well).

By: Rich Gibson

Rich Gibson — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:02:54 +0000

John,
not sure it will matter if you can’t activate the d@mn thing… on my second day of unbelievable hold times (last night had to give up after 65 minutes because we were running into my daughter’s bedtime). Today, I’m at 55 minutes and counting… I have to think $1200 (CS3 Design Standard suite) a pop, Adobe can afford to hire a few more operators to take these calls. I’m only trying to activate the 2nd box (my understanding is you get ‘TWO’)… why such horrible service for arguably, the most expensive (don’t misunderstand here, I LOVE PHOTOSHOP) set of commercially available graphic software on the planet? So, if you’ve got any pull at all, will you use it to get this fixed? You guys are making my city owned water company look great.
Rich Gibson

By: A. Dias

A. Dias — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:41:09 +0000

> … At the same time, I want to wake up in the morning and have Photoshop be smarter & more feature-rich than when I went to bed.
I agree. But… currently PS is not updated between releases :(

By: Iain Gunther

Iain Gunther — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:36:30 +0000

I agree entirely with the pricing comment. PS CS3 is $650 in American English and English pounds 1110 for what I see as an idenical item. If the VAT is removed this means it costs about 50% more to buy PS CS3 in England. Why?

By: Alessandro Rosa

Alessandro Rosa — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:13:36 +0000

I have to say that the 18-24 month release period is, from my opinion as a casual user of your software, stressful. As I do not derive my income from my use and knowledge of Photoshop, PS Lightroom and or any of the other Creative Suites apps, It can be difficult to keep up with the upgrade cycle or even justify the expense of those upgrades.
To be honest, I have kind’ve been handcuffed into that cycle since Photoshop CS, as most of the advances that have been made in digital photography have been as major upgrades or with the release of lightroom. Just the fact that older versions of Camera Raw gets orphaned everytime there is a new release of PS has always left a bit of a bad feeling with me.It feels as though Adobe is using their position as the only real imaging game in town to monopolistic effect.
I realize that you guys all work really hard to put out a top caliber product, and that you are entitled to profit from that effort, but the cost of upgrades and the decision that an enhancement warrants a major release, and therefore a version upgrade is a little hard for the hobbyist or casual user to swallow.
I had upgraded pretty early on from CS to CS2, but then was trying to hold off on CS3, as I was finding it hard to justify the cost. I ended up relenting, in order to get the Lightroom integration, but know I already have to think about another upgrade to Lightroom 2 and CS4! It is daunting, especially considering I hardly feel like I have even had a chance to kick the tires on CS3. As I do not derive my income from Photoshop, as I stated before, I don’t get too much of a chance to use the product that often, and yet it seems that the technique that I want to use for my photographic hobby is only in the new release, so I have to wrestle with the decision of upgrading, knowing that in a year or less I may be faced with that costly decision again. Sometimes it makes me seriously think of giving up my photography hobby, which just feels sad….
Thanks for all of the effort you put in to making this an interesting and informative blog, even if it is just to find out that “You Suck at Photoshop!” (what a riot!)

By: Joe Color

Joe Color — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:59:33 +0000

it’s a little off topic, but what’s the reason for the huge price difference for adobe software between the us and europe?
The CS3 Master Collection costs 2500$ in the us store and in the austrian store it costs 3500EUR (= 5400$) – that means that it would actually be cheaper to fly to the us and buy it there… isn’t that a bit of a rip-off?

By: Peter Dinella

Peter Dinella — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:14:40 +0000

Because Bridge is completely dead on my computer, I have begun to use Nikon View NX and Lightroom as an interface to CS3. It will be a long hard decision for me to upgrade to CS4 given the absolutely poor work done with Bridge.

By: Cabel Sasser

Cabel Sasser — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:50:56 +0000

Hey John — certainly didn’t intend to single out Photoshop in my post. Insert “any application from perceptively large corporation” instead. ;)
For the record, we actually really do love being able to do releases, even those totally free lots-of-new-feature 0.5′s we tend to do, frequently and “when we feel like it”. I’ve always felt it was one of the joys of being part of a smaller company. I’m really happy to hear that you’re thinking about Photoshop’s release schedule and adding back some of that flexibility into Adobe!
I think my only point here is that the more frequently you release software and the more flexible you are, the potentially shorter the User Patience Rubber Band gets — but it’s a good problem to have, really. I’d rather that than nobody caring. :)